The Great Texas Stamp Collection: How Some Stubborn Texas Confederate Postmasters, a Handful of Determined Texas Stamp Collectors, and a Few of the World's Greatest Philatelists Created, Discovered, and Preserved Some of the World's Most Valuable Postage Stamps 9780292739628

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THE GREAT TEXAS STAMP COLLECTION

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Charles N. Prothro Texana Series

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G RE AT TEXAS S TA M P

Collection

How Some Stubborn Texas Confederate Postmasters, a Handful of Determined Texas Stamp Collectors, and a Few of the World’s Greatest Philatelists Created, Discovered, and Preserved Some of the World’s Most Valuable Postage Stamps

By Charles W. Deaton

U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E X A S PRESS

Austin

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Copyright © 2012 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2012 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713-7819 www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html ∞ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997)

(Permanence of Paper).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Deaton, Charles. The great Texas stamp collection : how some stubborn Texas confederate postmasters, a handful of determined Texas stamp collectors, and a few of the world’s greatest philatelists created, discovered, and preserved some of the world’s most valuable postage stamps / by Charles W. Deaton. p. cm. — (Charles N. Prothro Texana series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-292-73961-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-292-73962-8 (e-book) 1. Postage stamps—Texas—History. 2. Stamp collections— Texas—History. 3. Stamp collecting—United States—History. I. Title. HE6185.U7T493 2012 769.569764—dc23 2011051988

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In loving memory of Suzan McCallister Deaton (March 21, 1949–August 13, 2010)

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Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Glossary of Philatelic Terms xiii Time Line of Important Dates xv CHAPTER ONE

Difficult Times for Southern Postmasters and Their Customers 1 CHAPTER TWO

The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters’ Stamps by Texas Collectors 9 CHAPTER THREE

The World’s Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections 29 CHAPTER FOUR

The Printed Texas Stamps 49 BEAUMONT

49 HELENA

VICTORIA

66

56

LAVACA

GOLIAD

60

68

– – vii

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection CHAPTER FIVE

The “Cut and Paste” Texas Stamps 71 72

PLUM CREEK

74

INDEPENDENCE

78

HALLETTSVILLE

AUSTIN

79

CHAPTER SIX

The “Book and Pill Label” Stamps of Gonzales 83 CHAPTER SEVEN

The Curious Case of Wharton, Waxahachie, and Other “Wannabe” Texas Postmasters’ Stamps 87 SAN ANTONIO

91

GALVESTON

92

Epilogue 95 Appendix. A Census of the Known Texas Confederate Postmasters’ Provisional Stamps 97 Notes on Sources 109

A Photo Gallery of the Texas Postmasters’ Provisional Stamps follows page 8. Index 113

– – viii

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Acknowledgments AS IS USUAL IN THE PHILATELIC WORLD, MANY KIND

souls provided information and encouragement for this project. My biggest “thank you” goes to my friend Vince King, whose extraordinary computer genealogical and historical research talents helped unearth much information about the various players in these stories. With his help, the tales became much more interesting. A trio of intrepid researchers from the world of Confederate philately, Patricia Kaufmann, Frank Crown, and Jerry Palazolo, was always ready with suggestions and comments, scans and photos, and other support. Ellen Peachey and Tara Murray, of the American Philatelic Research Library in State College, Pennsylvania, provided much capable assistance in tracking down hard-to-find articles, catalogs, and journals. David Petruzelli and Lewis Kaufman of the Philatelic Foundation in New York were also helpful in searching for information from the voluminous files of that organization. Scott R. Trepel, president of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York, was generous in sharing information from his firm’s encyclopedic philatelic research files. Thanks also for help at various stages of this project to Frank Mandel, Richard Frajola, Stanley Piller, Richard Debney, Peter Powell, John Kimbrough, Christopher Rupp, Schuyler Rumsey, Charles Shreve, Tom Mills, and Josh Buchsbayew. I must also thank several editors at the University of Texas Press, including sponsoring editor Allison Faust, manuscript editor Lynne F. Chapman, and freelance copy editor Jan McInroy, for their help on this project.

– – ix

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Introduction THI S I S T H E S TO RY OF S O M E EXCEED INGLY RARE

early Texas postage stamps and the small-town postmasters who brought them to life. These extraordinary stamps were printed and sold during the Civil War years in Victoria, Goliad, Beaumont, Austin, Gonzales, and a few other Texas towns by postmasters struggling to handle hardships presented to them by the Confederate Post Office Department. The United States Post Office had provided these Texas towns with an abundant supply of stamps, and both the postmasters and their patrons were accustomed to their use. The Confederate postal authorities, however, were unable to keep stamps readily available, making it more difficult for Texans to send their mail. To alleviate this problem, some enterprising Texas postmasters simply printed and sold their own stamps to stop the complaints of their customers. These rare local stamps that they created on a whim have become so desirable and coveted by collectors that a small group of them sold for more than a quarter of a million dollars in a New York auction in 2009. This is also a tale of a few early Texas philatelists, or stamp collectors, who, once they learned of the existence of these crudely designed and printed stamps, went searching for examples for their own collections. These were some very industrious folks who devoted years of their lives to their search. As new discoveries were made, or additional copies of previously known stamps were found, these early collectors would freely share the news with the growing number of serious philatelists in this country and abroad. As news spread, other collectors, of course, wanted examples for their own albums. Thus, this is also a tale of the early great collectors of the entire world of philately, the fabulously wealthy members and heirs of European royal families and immensely wealthy American industrialists, as well as the dealers who strove to serve them.

– – xi

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection These many eyes were all watching the serious philatelic journals on both sides of the Atlantic, and as new discoveries were reported by those indefatigable Texans, the desire for examples of these rare stamps increased even more. As with any tale involving rare and incredibly valuable objects of desire, one can expect to hear accounts of greed, mystery, and intrigue, of philatelic fakers of the nineteenth century and common criminals of the twentieth century. As the tale unfolds, the names and families involved in the telling will include the well known and the obscure, in both Texas and American history, as well as in international philately. The story will also be affected by cataclysmic events such as world wars and depressions. It is an unending tale, one that will likely never be entirely told. Indeed, as recently as 2008, a fortuitous discovery was made of two more copies of these rare stamps that had been hiding in plain sight for about fifty years in the reference and forgery collection of one of the country’s largest stamp dealers, where they had been placed by an employee who doubtless considered them to be forgeries.

– – xii

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Glossary of Philatelic Terms adhesive stamps. Postage stamps that were prepared beforehand and then sold over the counter to be affixed to letters either by the “lick and stick” method or with the help of the “paste pot” in the post office. These adhesive local stamps are the focus of this book. Many post offices also sold stamped envelopes that had “PAID 5” or “PAID 10” already stamped on them with a circular handstamp postmark device similar to a rubber stamp. It is difficult (and sometimes impossible) to determine whether one of these was actually made and sold beforehand or whether that postal marking was simply struck onto a letter when it was brought by a customer to be mailed. cover. A stamp collector’s term for an envelope or a folded letter on a single sheet of paper sent through the mail. Before envelopes came into widespread use in the mid-1850s, a letter was written on a sheet of paper and then “covered” by another sheet, which was sealed with wax. This outside, or “cover,” sheet of paper bearing the stamp and postal markings was the piece that was of primary interest to collectors. Later, as envelopes replaced that outside sheet, the word “cover” remained in use to describe the envelope. locals, postmasters’ stamps, postmasters’ provisionals. These terms have been used in the stamp world at various times to describe postage stamps issued by local postmasters on a “temporary” basis when regular government stamps are not available. Currently, the phrase “postmasters’ provisionals” is more commonly used, but the others have been widely used in the past. In this book, these three terms will be used interchangeably. off-cover stamps. Loose stamps that have been removed from an envelope. wallpaper, adversity, and turned covers. Because of paper and envelope shortages in the South during the Civil War, enve-

– – xiii

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection lopes were often made by folding other sheets of paper—such as unused business forms, unprinted endpapers and frontispieces from Bibles and other books, broadsides, and even wallpaper samples—around the outside of the communication and then sealing it with a homemade flour paste; these are known in the philatelic world as “adversity” covers. Previously mailed envelopes were sometimes steamed apart, and the flaps were refolded and resealed to allow the inside of the envelope to face out and be remailed; these are known as “turned” covers.

– – xiv

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Time Line of Important Dates January 28, 1861. Convention to consider secession meets in Austin February 1, 1861. Ordinance of Secession adopted at convention, to be voted on in a statewide referendum on February 23 February 23, 1861. Secession approved in statewide referendum, to become effective March 2, 1861, as stated in the ordinance March 5, 1861. Convention meets again, accepts invitation from the Confederate Congress to join the Confederacy April 12, 1861. First shots of war fired at Fort Sumter April 19, 1861. Union blockade of Confederate ports declared May 31, 1861. Last day of United States Post Office operations in Confederate states; the U.S. postage rate is 3 cents per letter up to 3,000 miles, and stamps are readily available June 1, 1861. Confederate Post Office Department takes control of postal system in the Confederate states; postage rates set at 5 cents for letters under 500 miles, 10 cents for letters over 500 miles; no postage stamps available for sale anywhere in the South Late June 1861. Gonzales postmaster begins using advertising labels as stamps October 16, 1861. Stamps from Confederate Post Office finally ready for use July 1, 1862. Confederate postage rate changed to 10 cents for all letters April 9, 1865. Surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox, Virginia May 26, 1865. Surrender of troops west of the Mississippi River June 2, 1865. Union troops arrive in Galveston June 19, 1865. Union general Granger arrives in Galveston and officially declares slavery dead 1870. Dealer John W. Scott writes first article listing known Confederate locals; none from Texas are listed

– – xv

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection 1873. Discovery of Goliad stamps, including one with “GOILAD” error, reported by London stamp journal 1874. Discovery of Helena stamp reported by another London journal 1893. Victoria stamps reported by American publication 1895. Beaumont stamps first reported by American journal 1898. Gonzales stamps first reported 1900. Independence “cut and paste” stamps discovered 1929. First mention of the Hallettsville stamp in August Dietz’s book The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America 1935. Discovery of Port Lavaca stamp 1939. Discovery of the Austin stamps first mentioned 1956. Plum Creek stamp first seen in auction catalog 1988. Last known discovery of Goliad stamp 2000. Plum Creek stamp officially recognized as genuine in Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers 2008. Two Victoria stamps thought to be fakes discovered to be genuine

– – xvi

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THE GREAT TEXAS STAMP COLLECTION

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CHAPTER

Difficult Times for Southern Postmasters and Their Customers

1

P O S TAG E

IN THE SUMMER OF 1861 , TEXAS POSTMASTERS WERE in a quandary. They had no stamps to sell. The Confederate Post Office Department took over all postal operations in the seceded states on June 1, 1861, but for a period of several months was unable to provide postage stamps to its post offices. The new Confederate postmaster general, John H. Reagan, of Texas, was able to offer a number of fairly valid reasons for this to other government officials who were looking over his shoulder, but the exasperated postal patrons, now accustomed to the ease and simplicity of readily available stamps at the post office, were not satisfied. And this situation was not unique to Texas, either. All across the South, merchants, attorneys, businessmen, and family members bemoaned the disappearance of these small bits of paper that had made corresponding with friends and relations so much easier since they came into use a few years earlier. One complainant, in the Richmond, Virginia, Daily Examiner newspaper, noted on September 26, 1861, after almost four months without stamps:

Postage Stamps—the want of this necessary accommodation in Richmond, to which our people have become used under the old Washington government, is felt to be a most serious inconvenience by all who rely on the Postal Department of the Confederate government as a means of communication . . . It

– – 1

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection seems to be conceded that something ought to be done to allay the growing discontent.

Most Texans in 1861 were probably satisfied with the mail service provided by that “old Washington government.” Post offices were widespread in Texas at the time, and a 3-cent stamp would carry a letter up to 3,000 miles, which for a Texan was just about anywhere in the country. The previous decade had seen some major changes in the way mail was sent and the way Americans communicated with one another. Postage stamps were first issued by the United States in 1847. There was a 5-cent red-brown stamp bearing a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, which paid for letters being sent under 300 miles, and a black 10-cent stamp showing George Washington, which was for letters being sent farther than 300 miles. (Only a handful of Texas post offices got a supply of these beautifully engraved 1847 stamps, and letters from Texas bearing these stamps are exceedingly rare and sought after by today’s stamp collectors.) Postage rates were changed in 1851 to 3 cents for a distance of up to 3,000 miles (or 5 cents if the letter was sent unpaid with postage to be paid by the recipient). This change brought forth a new series of stamps with a 3-cent featuring Washington and a 5-cent with Thomas Jefferson’s portrait. They were supplied to post offices in full panes of 100 stamps each, already gummed on the back but without perforations, thus requiring the postal clerk or patron to cut them apart with scissors. A few other postal innovations in the 1850s made the mails much more user-friendly. By the mid-1850s, envelopes as we know them came into widespread use, thus making it easy for a letter or note to be written on any sheet or scrap of paper and sealed without resorting to the bother of sealing wax. In 1855, the post office regulation allowing letters to be sent unpaid, or “collect,” was dropped, and by January 1, 1856, all letters were required to be prepaid with the necessary postage stamps affixed to them. The last innovation arrived in 1857, when perforating ma-

– – 2

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Difficult Times for Southern Postmasters and Their Customers chines came into use and perforated stamps as we know them today became available. In the late 1850s these perforated stamps were widely available, even in tiny post offices throughout Texas. So when the Confederate Post Office Department became responsible for the mails on June 1, 1861, Texans had, for at least four years, been accustomed to a convenient mail system. One simply bought a 3-cent stamp, licked it, stuck it on an envelope, and dropped it off at the post office. And by keeping a few extra envelopes and perforated 3-cent stamps on hand, one could prepare and drop off letters even when the post office was closed. The first big change when the Confederate government took control of the mails was an increase in the postage rate from 3 cents to either 5 cents or 10 cents. Letters traveling less than 500 miles were charged 5 cents, while those going longer distances had to pay 10 cents. (Just over a year later, on July 1, 1862, the rate for all letters became 10 cents.) Confederate Postmaster General Reagan was from the East Texas town of Palestine. He had served as a member of the United States House of Representatives before the war, and he reluctantly agreed to take charge of the Post Office Department for the new Confederate government. Reagan was determined to provide postage stamps printed from “skillfully prepared steel dies and plates,” which by 1861 were in use in many countries, beautifully portraying kings, queens, founding fathers, and national symbols as exquisite miniature works of art. But he quickly ran into the same problem that bedeviled Southern attempts to acquire manufactured goods all through the war years. Most firms that produced such goods were in the more industrialized North. Reagan calculated the South’s stamp needs to be around 260,000 per day for normal mail levels, and he could find no engraver in the South who could provide more than 80,000 per day. He finally arranged for lithographed stamps to be supplied by the small Richmond firm of Hoyer and Ludwig, and these stamps, in gummed sheets but without perforations, were issued on October 16, 1861, fully four and a half months after Reagan’s Post Office Department had assumed control of the mails. The inadequate supplies of stamps, he later lamented, “only serve to increase the

– – 3

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection public discontent, as they are insufficient to meet the demands of even the principal cities.” So how did these postmasters in Texas (and the other Southern states) handle this “no stamps” situation? They improvised. They did the best they could. Reagan effectively left it up to them to figure it out. His only instructions required merely that “all postage must be paid in money,” whether stamps were available or not. To complicate matters further, silver coins began to disappear from circulation, making transactions even more difficult. Many postmasters reverted to the old practice of a few years earlier, before the advent of stamps, by simply marking letters “Paid,” either with handwriting or with a small handstamp postmarking device. All of this meant that trips to mail letters were more troublesome. There would have to be a calculation of whether it cost 5 cents or 10 cents to send letters to faraway towns, and that would be followed by a sometimes complicated financial arrangement. Some post offices opened charge accounts for customers who had a large volume of mail. And some printed their own scrip to facilitate making change as small coins became unavailable. Before long, a few postmasters, eager to quell discontent, concluded that Reagan’s rather loose instructions gave them the latitude to print stamps for their own post offices. This was actually not a new idea in American postal matters; back in the 1840s, before the United States first issued stamps in 1847, postmasters in a number of cities, including New York; Providence, Rhode Island; and St. Louis, had printed their own stamps, so there was already a precedent for the situation. All over the South, the use of these “local” stamps spread rapidly. In Texas, philatelists today know that ten different postmasters created and sold their own stamps during the war years, and all of those stamps are now extremely rare philatelic objects of desire for collectors across the world. They were not officially sanctioned, so no records of their issue or sales were kept. Technically, they were valid only for postage at the post office where they were sold, but postal officials in the towns to which they carried their letters did not question them or ask the recipient for additional funds. In those parts of the South close to the Confederate Post Office

– – 4

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Difficult Times for Southern Postmasters and Their Customers Department headquarters in Richmond, and thus likely to receive frequent shipments of the government stamps, the use of these “local” stamps was generally confined to the first few months of the Confederate postal operations, typically from the summer of 1861 to November or December of that year. In other areas, especially in Texas and states west of the Mississippi River, the use of postmasters’ stamps continued occasionally during the 1862–1864 period because of the infrequent shipments of regular government stamps. Indeed, after the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, and Port Hudson, Louisiana, on July 9, 1863, any communication between Richmond, the seat of the Confederate government, and states west of the Mississippi was extremely uncertain, Reagan wrote years later, so shipments of stamps west of the Mississippi became even more irregular. The situation increased the frustrations of the Confederate postmasters in Texas, again requiring them to create their own stamps. Easily the most prolific of these Texas postmasters in terms of different varieties of stamps produced was John A. Clarke, of the small but historic town of Goliad. Using a local printshop, he had some crudely designed 5-cent and 10-cent stamps printed. A first type showed nothing more than the words “Goliad,” “Postage,” and either “5” or “10.” A later design revision added the words “John A. Clarke, Post Master.” Sloppy proofreading produced one variety with the town name misspelled “Goilad,” and the severe paper shortage that plagued Texas and the South during the war produced several more, as the printer used any available paper for the stamps. Some are known printed on white, gray, rose, and dark blue paper, as well as on the back of old business forms. Counting the spelling errors, there are eleven different varieties of the Goliad postmaster’s stamps known today, and all are exceedingly rare. Another of these postmasters, John V. Law of Gonzales, can surely be classed as the “most creative” of the lot. A partner in the firm of Colman and Law, booksellers and druggists in Gonzales, Law had been postmaster there since 1853, and the post office was located in his store. Colman and Law had ordered a supply of small advertising labels, printed in gold on colored glazed paper,

– – 5

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection to be affixed to books (and possibly to containers of pills) as they were sold. When stamps were unavailable, Postmaster Law had the bright idea to use these labels instead, with the gold on dark blue becoming a 5-cent stamp, and the gold on garnet or crimson taking the role of a 10-cent stamp. These, too, are very rare, with only a handful of each known today. The postmasters who produced the most typical of these Texas stamps were the three from Beaumont, Victoria, and Helena. The Beaumont postmaster included here is Alexander Hinkle, one of four different postmasters to serve that town during the Confederacy. Hinkle took office on December 5, 1863, and during his fifteen months on the job, three different stamps were printed and issued. Two were quite simple, bearing only the words “Beaumont,” “Paid,” and “10 Cents,” and examples are known printed on both yellow and pink paper. The third stamp was a larger and more elaborate version, and only a single copy of it has been found. The Victoria postmaster, James A. Moody, was one of the most experienced in the state, having served in that office since 1838, during the Republic of Texas years. Moody also issued three stamps, all printed locally in reddish-brown ink on dark green paper. There are perhaps a dozen of these known to collectors today. David Daily, the postmaster at Helena, a tiny community about 30 miles down the road from Goliad, also issued a 5-cent and a 10-cent stamp, both so much like the Goliad stamps in appearance that it was generally thought by early philatelists that they were printed by the same local printshop that made the stamps for Postmaster Clarke in Goliad. Only three of the 5-cent and two of the 10-cent stamps have been discovered by philatelists to this date. Only a pair of scissors and a pot of paste were needed to make what we would describe as the “most puzzling” of these Texas postmasters’ stamps. These were created by Postmasters William Rust at Austin, John McKnight at Independence, Thomas Notgrass at Hallettsville, and William R. Johnston at Plum Creek. All of these officials just cut a small bit of paper, about the size

– – 6

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Difficult Times for Southern Postmasters and Their Customers of a typical stamp, wrote or stamped the word “Paid” on it, and then glued it to letters mailed at their office. Three of these were either circular or square in shape, having been cut around an impression of a handstamp postmark device; the fourth, from Plum Creek, was much smaller and cut from a piece of blue ruled paper. Perhaps the most mysterious of these stamps in the minds of many philatelists is the sole example found so far from Lavaca, Texas, apparently created by Postmaster Charles A. Ogsbury. For reasons unknown, the Confederate Post Office Department changed the name of Port Lavaca to Lavaca on March 2, 1862, and Ogsbury was named postmaster on the same date. The one stamp from Lavaca that has survived is another simple design, with an illustration of a paddle-wheel steamboat at the top, followed by the words “Postage,” “10 Cents,” and “Lavaca.” But the mystery surrounding the dropping of the “Port” from the post office name remains, as does the question of how and where this stamp was printed. We will find out much more about all of these stamps in later chapters devoted to each town. But we now turn our attention to the discovery of these Texas philatelic gems in the years after the Civil War.

– – 7

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A Photo Gallery of the Texas Postmasters’ Provisional Stamps

T h i s p h o t o g a l l e ry c o n ta i n s p i c t u r e s o f

approximately twenty of these rare Texas stamps, including several that are the only known example. One need only consult the current census of known copies of the stamps (appendix, page 97) to realize their true rarity. To date, philatelists have acknowledged twenty-nine varieties of these stamps because of differences in design, papers, and denominations, and a grand total of ninety-three stamps have been discovered. Only one example is known of seven of those twenty-nine different varieties or designs, and only two examples are known of another seven designs. The most common of any of these twenty-nine varieties is the 10-cent Beaumont stamp printed on pink paper, and only fourteen of these have been recorded. The rst eight stamps pictured in the gallery are items of which only one or two copies are known at this time.

Plate 1. This is one of the most famous stamps in Texas and Confederate postal history, the legendary “Large Beaumont.” The only recorded copy of this provisional, it was found in the early 1920s by Fred Green of San Antonio, a prominent collector of Texas stamps. Green discovered this rarity among the correspondence of Colonel William B. Duncan of Liberty. Duncan was a well-known rancher, cattle trader, public servant, businessman, and a reluctant Confederate ofcer in southeast Texas. His many letters to his wife during this period, now held by the Sam Houston Regional Library in Liberty, gave us much insight into the chaotic conditions in the region during and after the Civil War. Sadly, the whereabouts of this stamp are currently unknown; it was stolen as part of a highly publicized theft in 1999 and has not been recovered. It was last offered for sale in a 1994 auction, where it realized $60,500. This image is reprinted by permission of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

Plate 2. The left stamp of this pair of Goliad 5-cent stamps shows the “GOILAD” spelling error. It is the only such example known. Careless proofreading by the printer, Rev. A. F. Cox, owner of the Goliad Messenger newspaper and printshop, resulted in the error. The stamps are both of the second Goliad design (known as Type II by collectors), containing the postmaster’s name and title. (The rst Goliad design, known as Type I, does not show the postmaster information; see page 101 for an example.) This highly implausible pair is easily one of the most famous items in both Texas and Confederate philately. It was in the worldrenowned collection of Philipp La Renotiere von Ferrary when he died in 1917. When it was sold at auction in 1922, the catalog writer failed to mention that one stamp of the pair had the spelling error. Fortunately, the pair was pictured in the catalog and collectors could thus spot the error. The stamp on the right, with the correct spelling “GOLIAD,” is also quite rare, as only two other copies are recorded. This pair was last offered publicly in the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries sale of the Josiah K. Lilly collection in 1967, where it sold for $9,500. Considering its rarity and fame in the world of Confederate philately today, this pair would likely realize upwards of $50,000 in a public auction. This image is reprinted by permission of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

3

4

5

Plate 3. This is the only known example of the “cut and paste” stamp from Hallettsville. The postmaster there removed the date from a typical postmark device and inserted the designations “PAID” and “10.” The device was then inked and applied to a sheet of paper, and the stamp thus created was cut out and pasted onto this 1863 letter to Austin. The last public sale of this cover occurred in 1991, in the Richard C. Frajola sale of the Dukeshire collection, where it sold for $19,800. This image was reprinted by permission of Richard Frajola.

Plate 4. Port Lavaca was renamed “Lavaca” by the Confederate Post Ofce Department during the war years. This unusual printed stamp bearing the words “10 Cents,” “Postage,” and “Lavaca,” with an illustration of a river steamboat above the words, is the only Lavaca stamp known today. It is addressed to Miss Puss Cliett, in Prairie Lea, thought likely to be Josephine Cliett, the teenage daughter of Methodist minister Thomas Cliett in the Caldwell County town. It was last offered publicly in the 1956 Alfred H. Caspary sale, where it sold for $1,300. In view of its rarity, the cover would likely sell for upwards of $30,000 in today’s market. This image was reprinted by permission of H. R. Harmer, Inc.

Plate 5. This 5-cent Goliad Type I stamp (without the postmaster’s name and title) is printed on rose-tinted paper, and is the only example on the original envelope (actually the “front” of the envelope, as the back is missing) in private hands. Another off-cover used stamp is known. (A stamp on cover also is in the British Museum’s Tapling Collection.) The piece shown here is another of Texas and Confederate philately’s most famous stamps. It sold in 2009 in the Spink Shreves Galleries sale of the William H. Gross Confederate Postmasters’ Provisionals for $43,225. This image was reprinted by permission of Spink Shreve Galleries.

6

7

8

Plate 6. This 10-cent Goliad Type II stamp is printed on dark blue glazed paper and is one of only two such items known. Because of wartime paper shortages, several different colors of paper were used in printing the Goliad stamps. This one was in the collection of Albert Steves, Sr., of San Antonio, a nationally and internationally prominent early Texas collector who discovered many of the Texas locals in the 1880s and 1890s. Steves acquired this example around 1930 from another San Antonio collector. A similar copy sold in the Cherrystone Auctions 2006 sale of the West Haven Collection for $20,500. This image is reprinted by permission of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

Plate 7. This envelope mailed from the tiny town of Plum Creek to Corpus Christi, Texas, has a small rectangular “stamp” on a piece of bluish ruled paper. Two examples of this “cut and paste” stamp are known, both made in 1864. One sold for $9,000 in a 1985 Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries sale. The image shown here is from the February 20, 1986, auction of John K. Kaufmann, Inc., and is reprinted with the permission of Patricia A. Kaufmann.

Plate 8. Both 5-cent and 10-cent stamps from Helena are shown here. They were printed in nearby Goliad by the same printer who produced the Goliad locals, Rev. A. F. Cox of the Goliad Messenger newspaper. No covers that bear the Helena stamps are known. Three 5-cent and two 10-cent stamps are known. The last public sale of one came in 1994, when a 5-cent stamp in the Camina collection was sold by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries for $7,425. In today’s market, the same stamp would bring much more than that price, probably something upwards of $20,000. This image was reprinted by permission of H. R. Harmer, Inc.

Plate 9. This is a Goliad 10-cent Type II stamp with the “GOILAD” spelling error. Three examples of this are known. The last public sale of one of these stamps came in 1994, in the Camina sale by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, when a copy on cover sold for $7,150. In today’s market, it would likely bring $20,000 or more. This image is reprinted by permission of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

Plate 10. This small garnet-colored advertising label was used by the Gonzales postmaster, John V. Law, for a 10-cent stamp. He was a partner in the rm of Colman and Law, druggists and booksellers, and these labels were usually placed on books and medicine boxes sold by the rm. The labels were used as stamps during the war years when no regular Confederate stamps were available. Labels on dark blue or black paper were used as 5-cent stamps, while those on garnet paper became 10cent stamps. The cover shown here, with a single 10-cent garnet stamp on it, sold in a Schuyler Rumsey auction in 2010 for $25,300. A cover with a pair of the 5-cent blue labels sold in a 1982 auction for $8,500. The realization today for such an item would likely be around $25,000. This image was reprinted by permission of Schuyler Rumsey Philatelic Auctions, Inc.

11

12

13A and 13B

Plate 11. This 10-cent Independence stamp is one of the “cut and paste” varieties from the war years. The Independence postmaster used an old postmark device without the dates in the center, then wrote “Pd” and “10” inside and cut it out so it could be pasted on the envelope as a stamp. On some examples, including the one here, the “10” was a hand-stamped gure rather than a handwritten one. Five examples of the Independence stamp are recorded. The cover shown here sold in the 1999 Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries sale of the Kilbourne collection for $34,500. This image is reprinted by permission of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

Plate 12. Four examples of the 10-cent Austin “cut and paste” stamps are known, all cut out in a square rather than a circle. Some, like the one shown here, have the stamp prepared on white paper, while others use buff-colored paper. This cover sold in the 1986 Richard C. Frajola sale of the Marc Haas collection for $8,800. This image was reprinted by permission of Richard Frajola.

Plates 13A and 13B . These two Victoria stamps were thought for decades to be fakes and were relegated to reposing in the reference collection of one of the country’s largest stamp dealers as probable fakes. A collector who acquired that group for his own voluminous collection of fakes and forgeries traded them to yet another collector, who, after taking a second look, thought that perhaps they were genuine. He was right, and in 2008 they received certicates of authenticity from the Confederate Stamp Alliance’s Authentication Service. There are ve examples of both the 5-cent and the 10-cent stamps now recorded. The pair shown here sold privately in 2008 for $40,000. In November 2011 that purchaser sold them through a New York auction rm, where they brought $13,225 each, or $26,450 for the pair. A second design of the 10-cent stamp is known, with the numeral “10” printed in a bolder, backward-slanting typeface. Four copies of that 10-cent stamp are known. In the 1999 Kilbourne sale, one sold for $7,425; today it would certainly bring a substantially higher price, perhaps upwards of $20,000. These images were reprinted by permission of Patricia A. Kaufmann.

Plate 14. This example of the 10-cent Victoria Type I stamp on a letter to Brownsville is one of only two known covers bearing a Victoria local. The addressee, José San Román, was a merchant, banker, and cotton trader with ties to both Brownsville and Matamoros. During the war he was an important cotton broker, sending cotton from Texas farmers to textile rms in New England, England, and Germany by way of Mexican ports. (See The Handbook of Texas Online for more about San Román.) This cover has long been considered one of the most important items in both Confederate and Texas postal history. It last sold in the 2009 William H. Gross sale for $109,350. This image was reprinted by permission of Spink Shreves Galleries.

Plate 15. This is a Goliad 10-cent Type II stamp on an envelope addressed to Mrs. Susan T. Moody in Victoria, the wife of Victoria postmaster James A. Moody, who also issued his own local stamps during the war years. This stamp and cover came into the philatelic world in 1988 when the author acquired it from Moody family members. Seven examples of this stamp are known today. The cover shown here last sold at public auction in 1994 in the Camina collection sale by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries for $20,350. This image is reprinted by permission of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

Plate 16. The small Beaumont stamp on yellow paper shown here is on a cover sent to San Augustine, Texas. Because of the paper shortage during the war, this cover was “turned,” with the flaps unsealed, reversed, and the cover re-used with the address on the other side, addressed to Mrs. Maggie L. Watson in Sabine Pass. Her husband, C. Samuel Watson, was in the Texas Marine Department, an assistant engineer on the vessel CSS Sachem, a gunboat captured from Union forces during the Battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863. Five copies of this stamp are known today. The cover shown here sold in 2009 in the William H. Gross sale for $51,850. This image was reprinted by permission of Spink Shreve Galleries.

Plate 17. This 10-cent Beaumont stamp printed on pink paper is easily the most common of all Texas locals, with fourteen examples known today. The one shown here was sent by Confederate soldier William H. Lloyd to his wife, Susan, in Houston. A total of ve of these covers, all addressed to Mrs. Lloyd, electried the stamp world when they were discovered in 1902. (See chapter 4, page 51, for a photo of all ve at the time of discovery.) One of the covers from this nd sold in the 2009 William H. Gross sale for $25,400. This image was reprinted by permission of Spink Shreve Galleries.

Plates 18 and 19.

18

These two items have been described as Texas Confederate locals, but many students and veteran collectors remain highly skeptical about their authenticity. They are similar in appearance, each being a tiny gummed label with bright blue borders. One is from Waxahachie and the other from Wharton. Both received a certicate of authenticity from the Philatelic Foundation in 1994, but they have not been listed as genuine in an American stamp catalog. (For more details, see chapter 7.) These images were reprinted by permission of the Philatelic Foundation.

19

CHAPTER

The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters’ Stamps by Texas Collectors

2

P O S TAG E

THE STORY OF THESE STAMPS IS A FASCINATING ONE,

filled with mystery, intrigue, and speculation. There is perhaps no better way to begin than by recalling the words of August H. Dietz, known today as the Father of Confederate Philately and the founder of the Confederate Stamp Alliance, a collectors group dedicated to the study of this subject. Dietz was a Richmond, Virginia, printer and publisher and an early advocate of the study of Confederate stamps and postal history. His monumental work The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America, published in 1929, is still an indispensable resource for serious philatelists today. He began his chapter on postmasters’ stamps with this admonition: I shall not attempt to tell the story of the Confederate Provisionals nor will another succeed in the effort. There are few records to find—no man living today to inform. But through the years there have come down to us—“by word of mouth,” as it were—statements, and stories, and names, which bear strong semblance to truth. These I have gathered and shall here present, incidentally correcting some misinformation concerning the manner of their making on which the various authorities do not agree.

After this caveat, Dietz did, of course, proceed to tell the story, and I shall, too.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection These Texas stamps were all produced in the early 1860s, which was an important time not only in American history but also in the history of stamp collecting. The very first adhesive postage stamp was issued in 1840 by Great Britain. The ease and convenience that these tiny bits of gummed paper brought to the world of commerce soon caused other countries to follow the English example. Within a couple of years, a New York City local post service printed its own stamps, and issues from Brazil and Switzerland came forth in 1843. The United States released its first stamp in 1847. Stamps quickly became “a major signpost of modern civilization,” notes Dr. Stanley Bierman in The World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors. As other countries and stampissuing entities brought forth their own postal issues, the different stamps available to collectors grew exponentially. By 1860, more than 1,000 different postage stamps had been produced by various countries; ten years later, the growing body of enthusiasts had more than 7,000 stamps to collect. And collect they did. The gathering of these colorful pieces of paper from faraway places was early on considered a child’s diversion, but then, as young collectors grew up, it became more than a juvenile amusement. By the mid-1850s, philately was a serious, organized hobby that attracted adult collectors, too. Dealers in antiquarian books, coins, and curios began to offer stamps to this community of serious collectors. As it became possible to make a living from this new endeavor, young dealers sprang up all across Europe, England, and New York and Boston in this country. In 1856, sixteen-year-old Stanley Gibbons began selling stamps in a small portion of his father’s pharmacy in Plymouth, England. Another young Englishman, John Walter Scott, all of eighteen years old, emigrated to New York City in 1863 and also started a stamp business. Both Gibbons and Scott founded firms that are still playing a major role in the stamp world today. By the mid-1860s, all the necessary tools for the business aspect of philately had already appeared. There were albums for collectors to store and display their treasures, catalogs listing all the known stamps issued by various countries, and printed price lists

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors of dealers’ offerings to customers. Literally dozens and dozens of periodic stamp magazines and journals sprang up in America, England, and Europe, and at least sixty different dealers were advertising their wares in these journals. Most of the publications had special sections or columns reporting new stamp issues (or new discoveries of older stamp issues), which were widely read by the burgeoning army of serious collectors, who in their quest for these discoveries then turned to the dealers. So, in the late 1860s and early 1870s, as Texas (and the other Southern states) began recovering from the ravages of the war years and the later Reconstruction period, stamp collectors on both sides of the Atlantic began diligently searching for the “local” stamps created by the Confederate postmasters. The earliest attempt to record the Confederate postmasters’ stamps came in an 1870 article by the aforementioned dealer John W. Scott, in the American Journal of Philately. Scott began his study by lamenting that after years of searching for these stamps, “we have only arrived at the conclusion that we know next to nothing concerning them.” He continued, “There is not the least doubt but that there are dozens of these interesting stamps that have never been chronicled in the Journals . . . and probably there are many priceless locals hid away in different Southern school boy’s [sic] collections.” Scott’s words were doubly prophetic: his study in 1870 revealed that only eighteen of the many Southern locals were known at the time, and none of the Texas stamps were on his list. Future discoveries of these little-known issues would bring many dozens of stamps into the philatelic limelight. Scott was also prescient with his comment about the Southern schoolboy collections, for it was perhaps two years later that one San Antonio schoolboy, not realizing what he had, traded one of the Helena, Texas, stamps (one of only five known today) to another schoolboy in his city. This would not become known for some time, but it was the first recorded exchange of a Texas postmaster’s stamp. One thing Scott could not have realized in 1870 was just how long it would take for all the Texas stamps to be discovered and

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection recognized as legitimately issued adhesive postage stamps by the philatelic world. The first mention of any of these Texas stamps that I have found in the nineteenth-century stamp journals came in 1873, eight years after the war’s hostilities had ceased, when The Stamp Collector’s Magazine of London announced the discovery of three Goliad stamps, one with a 10-cent value and two with a 5-cent value (one of which had the town name misspelled “GOILAD.” It was more than one hundred years later when the last of the Texas adhesive locals, this one from Plum Creek, was finally admitted as a legitimate issue in the Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers. The irony here cannot be missed: it was John W. Scott who first began writing about these stamps in 1870, and it was a volume printed by the company bearing his name, the most famous name of any United States dealer, that finally recognized the stamp from the tenth of the ten Texas towns that printed these stamps, in 2000, 130 years after his original words. After the 1873 Goliad discovery was published, other new Texas postmasters’ provisional finds came on a regular basis. In 1874, another London publication, The Stamp Collector’s Handbook, by Edward L. Pemberton, first mentioned the Helena local. Pemberton was a highly respected early British dealer and philatelic researcher. His introductory essay on the Confederate locals carried a message similar to Scott’s musings in the 1870 article published in this country. “Few postage stamps will prove to be such memorials as those of the late Confederate States,” he declared. It was especially these locals, or “provisionals,” he noted, that would remind us of the struggles that held prominent places in the pages of recent American history. “When a century has given age to philately,” he wrote, “many of these Confederate provisionals will be eagerly sought for and highly valued . . . they possess original claims upon us as matters of history, and that is the great ground upon which philately will take its stand for all time.” Word of newly discovered Texas locals came regularly in the 1890s. The Victoria stamps were first announced in the September 1893 American Journal of Philately. In 1895, the first find of

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors the Beaumont stamps was noted, followed by the publication of the Gonzales adhesives in 1898, and the Independence “cut and paste” stamps in 1900. Thus, by the turn of the century, the stamps from six of our ten Texas towns had been recorded in numerous philatelic journals and magazines. Hallettsville came next, though all we know now is that it was listed as a Texas postmasters’ stamp in August Dietz’s 1929 book, The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America. No further details are known about how or when it was found. The Port Lavaca stamp was found around 1935, and the Austin adhesive first recorded in 1939. The last of the Texas stamps to be recognized was the peculiar little adhesive from Plum Creek, and like the Hallettsville issue, few details of its discovery are known. We can say its first public appearance came in 1956, when the magnificent collection of Alfred H. Caspary was auctioned in New York by the H. R. Harmer firm. The Plum Creek stamp was a part of this collection, and was described by the auctioneers as an “unlisted” provisional, meaning it had not yet been declared a legitimately issued stamp by the Scott Catalogue editors. It was not until 2000 that it was first accepted and included in the catalogue. Only then, 135 years after the end of the bloody struggle between the blue and the gray, were all of the rare stamps created by these ten Texas postmasters recognized as authentic postal issues. Several early Texas collectors helped discover and chronicle these rarities for future philatelists. Easily the most important of them was Albert Steves, Sr., of San Antonio, an exceptional man from an extraordinary immigrant family. His father, Edward Steves, came to America from Germany in 1849 at the age of twenty, along with thousands of other German immigrants seeking new lives here, finally settling in Kerr County between present-day Kerrville and Comfort in the Hill Country. Edward married Johanna Kloepper, also a native of Germany. Albert, the second of their three sons, was born in 1860 at Cypress Creek ranch, the family ranch. In the late nineteenth century, Albert became the most prominent stamp enthusiast in Texas, widely known throughout the philatelic world for his incredible “finds”

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection of these Texas Confederate postmasters’ stamps. At one time, he had a total of sixteen in his collection, well over half of all known examples. He was described in the philatelic press of that era as a “wealthy gentleman and prominent lumber merchant,” with the finest collection of these stamps in existence. Counting later discoveries and purchases, he could claim to have owned at least twenty Texas rarities, an astounding number surpassed only once in all the years since. Edward Steves kept his wife and young sons on the family ranch during the Civil War years, which proved to be a difficult and dangerous time for German settlers in the area. Most were opposed to secession and slavery, and thus became ardent Unionists. The Confederate government began drafting soldiers in the summer of 1862, and clashes between officials seeking conscripts and settlers trying to avoid these officers were harsh, even leading to martial law in some areas. Many of the settlers were rounded up, though, and sent eastward to fight. Others decided to disappear in the Texas brush or to head for Mexico to avoid the war. One band of about sixty-five German Hill Country Unionists, including Edward’s brother Heinrich, left for Mexico but was attacked by Confederate troops on the bank of the Nueces River near present-day Fort Clark before they could reach the safety of the Rio Grande. In what is now called the Battle of the Nueces, about half of the Germans were killed, including a group of wounded prisoners who were summarily executed a few hours after the fight. Heinrich was included in the list of the dead. After the war ended, Edward and others gathered the bones of the casualties, who were never buried by the Confederates, and brought them back to Comfort for proper interment. A monument in honor of these Germans stands there today, one of only a few such memorials in any of the eleven Southern states erected in honor of a band of Unionists. Edward had ordered a horse-powered threshing machine before the hostilities began, and fortunately it arrived in 1861 at the port of Indianola on the last ship to reach Texas before the Union blockade sealed off the Texas coast. Wheat was a widespread crop in that part of Texas during the early 1860s, and Edward,

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors

2.1 . The Treue der Union (True to the Union) monument in Comfort, Texas, honors the memory of a number of German Hill Country Unionists killed by Confederate troops in 1862. It was dedicated on August 20, 1866, and is said to be one of only a few such memorials to the Union cause in any of the states in the Southern Confederacy. The American flag, which flies permanently at half-mast, has only thirty-six stars, which was the number of states in 1866. Photograph by Jim Fox. FIGURE

with the only threshing machine around, stayed busy reaping the wheat in a large, four-county area. He took a percentage of the wheat for payment, and after it was milled, carried the flour to Mexico by wagon and traded it for silver. He was able to avoid the Confederate government’s draconian conscription laws, but did serve in the home guard to help defend the frontier settlements against Indian raids. In 1866, as Texas struggled to recover from the disastrous social, economic, and political effects of the Civil War, Edward Steves moved his family, including six-year-old Albert, to San Antonio, which at the time was a sleepy little town of about eight thousand. There he opened a lumber business behind the Menger

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Hotel, and in those pre-railroad days he arranged to bring Louisiana cypress and Florida long-leaf pine lumber in by oxcart from the port of Indianola. As the city grew, so did his lumberyard, eventually moving to Alamo Street, where Joske’s Department Store was later built. In 1877, the year the railroad finally came to San Antonio, Albert, then seventeen, and his brother Edward Jr. joined the family business; the next year another brother, Ernest, came into the firm, which came to be known as Ed Steves and Sons. All of these Steves men, father and sons, were apparently generously gifted with genes that produced industriousness and entrepreneurial skills. With the coming of the railroad, the firm moved closer to the rail depot and grew rapidly, along with the city. It soon came to be one of the leading commercial enterprises in South Texas, serving a wide area that extended as far south as northern Mexico. Those genes were apparently passed on to succeeding generations, too, as the family firm, still prosperous today, holds the distinction of being the “oldest family-owned wood products business” in the country. A sash and door plant, added to the lumberyard in 1913, has become one of the largest suppliers of doors to the home building industry. It is still under family control, with fourth- and fifth-generation Steves descendants now at the helm. These descendants have also dutifully entered into positions of community service and leadership, and the Steves family has become firmly entwined in the civic, social, political, and economic fabric of San Antonio and South Texas. One of them, Marshall Steves, Sr., served as the president of the 1968 HemisFair, the world’s fair that was held in San Antonio. Visitors today to the Institute of Texan Cultures on the HemisFair grounds near downtown will be greeted on occasion by a life-size photo of Mr. Steves as they enter this splendid museum. We don’t know for sure when Albert Steves began collecting stamps, but we do know he was still a young boy when he made what must have been the first recorded stamp swap in Texas philatelic history. The story of the swap was recounted by Charles J. Phillips, a dealer who was compiling a census of known Con-

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors federate postmasters’ stamps in the 1930s. According to Phillips, Steves had a 5-cent Helena, Texas, stamp at the time and traded it to a boy collector without realizing what it was, thus coming out on the bad end of the first Texas swap and at the same time fulfilling the 1870 prediction of John W. Scott, mentioned above, about these locals residing in schoolboys’ collections. Albert must have been a boy himself at the time, as he was born in 1860 and thus would have been no more than twelve or thirteen years of age. (We have no record of the other boy in this swap, or, indeed, whether that Helena stamp has survived. Steves told Phillips it was damaged at the top “by being cut into frame”; all five copies known today have been repaired, and we can’t say for sure whether the traded stamp is included in the current census.) We do know that Albert was, in the words of a present-day descendant, insatiably curious about many things. We also know that he was well educated for the time, having attended St. Mary’s College in San Antonio and Washington and Lee College in Lexington, Virginia. Within a few years he was such a well-known philatelist on both sides of the Atlantic that he was the subject of a feature article in the Philatelic Journal of America, one of the leading stamp journals of the period. “There are doubtless very few collectors who have not heard his name,” the 1894 article noted. His collecting efforts, it continued, began in the early seventies, and at the time the article was written he had a “goodly sized collection” that would compare favorably with our most elaborate collections. While he had an extensive international collection, with an essentially complete Mexico section, it was his gathering of the Texas Confederate locals that brought him philatelic fame. His extensive business and commercial ties with other prominent South Texas families no doubt helped provide some of these finds. The first known copy of the 10-cent Victoria, Texas, postmaster’s stamp was a Steves discovery, for example, which he obtained from Mrs. Arthur W. Guenther of San Antonio, who was given the stamp by her grandmother in La Grange, Texas. Mrs. Guenther had married into the prominent San Antonio flour milling family; the Guenther family enterprises evolved into a major

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection

FIGURE 2.2. This portrait of a young Albert Steves appeared in 1894 in the Philatelic Journal of America. By this time, the thirty-four-year-old Steves was well known in this country and abroad for his discoveries of the Texas postmasters’ provisional stamps.

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors food products company, with baking products today marketed under the Pioneer Flour brand name. Steves then later discovered a 5-cent Victoria stamp. Stamp News, a London philatelic paper, reported in September 1894 that Steves “has been earnest in his search for further light in regards to its [the 10-cent Victoria stamp] history” and recently obtained a 5-cent Victoria from the daughter of James A. Moody, the Victoria postmaster who issued the stamps. By this time, Steves had discovered and reported no less than five different types of the Goliad locals, one 5-cent and four different 10-cent stamps. One of the 10-cent stamps had the town name misspelled as “GOILAD,” and the others had either different colored paper or typesetting. Steves traveled to Chicago in August 1893 for the eighth annual convention of the American Philatelic Association to display all five Goliads and the 10-cent Victoria stamp. His visit was a major happening at this convention, and it led to even more press coverage for this prominent Texas philatelist. Steves remained an active collector for many years. He sold his marvelous group of Texas Confederate locals to the New England Stamp Company in 1910 or 1911, but later picked up a few more examples, and in the early 1930s he could report for the census mentioned above that he still had four different Goliad stamps. He also became one of the first Texas collectors to acquire a copy of the famous “Inverted Jenny,” the 1918 air mail stamp with the plane printed upside down. When he died in 1936, an obituary written by August Dietz, then editor of Stamp and Cover Collecting, lamented: Philately sustains an irreparable loss and Texas may well mourn the passing of an outstanding son—for the proud record of his family is closely interwoven with the history of the Lone Star State. Nearly a century ago the first American ancestor—the father of Albert Steves—came across the sea from Barmen in Germany to Indianola and finally located on a farm in Cypress Creek Valley, alternately fighting Indians, tilling the virgin soil and building a home in the New World.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Albert was one of the three stalwart sons of this pioneer with the indomitable spirit of the frontiersman. The iron of the race is in the Steves blood, and through unremitting toil and characteristic integrity their men and women acquired wealth and achieved distinction.

Another early Texas philatelist who played an instrumental role in the discovery of these stamps was Ernest Dean Dorchester, of Velasco, who was born in Massachusetts in 1859. We don’t know how he made his way to Texas or when he developed his interest in stamps, but we do know that 1899 was a major year in his life, with three noteworthy achievements: (1) he became the second president of the fledging Texas Philatelic Association, which was founded in 1896 (he held membership #5); (2) he married the granddaughter of T. W. House, founder of the legendary Houston banking and commercial firm; and (3) he discovered some of the Texas postmasters’ stamps among the T. W. House firm’s papers. Obviously, then, E. D. Dorchester, as he was known, had been in Texas long enough by 1899 to have won the hand in marriage of a pioneer banker’s granddaughter and to have made a favorable impression on a good number of Texans in both the philatelic and the non-philatelic communities. Dorchester was involved in the promoting of the new town of Velasco in the 1890s. The old port of Velasco, on the Brazos River about four miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, was founded in 1831. More than 25,000 settlers entered Texas through that port in later years, and in the Civil War period Texas cotton left from there on blockade-running vessels, to be traded for European guns, medicines, and other goods needed by the Confederacy. After the war, hurricanes, the decline of the plantation system, and the diversion of shipping to Galveston left Velasco a sleepy village of about fifty people. In 1891 promoters began touting the new town of Velasco, selling lots across the Midwest, building jetties and a 17½-footdeep channel for a new deepwater port, and establishing train service to Houston via the Velasco Terminal Railway. The population soared to around three thousand before the Galveston hur-

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors

2.3. A blank check from the T. W. House Bank in Houston. For many years, including the Civil War years, this was one of the leading banking and cotton factoring businesses in the state.

FIGURE

ricane of 1900 wrecked the town. Dorchester was secretary of the Velasco Terminal Railway in 1897 and later served as its receiver. In 1907 he was president of the Velasco State Bank. On December 18, 1899, Dorchester married Mary House Caldwell in Houston; she was the daughter of Mary Elizabeth House and Robert Caldwell, and the granddaughter of T. W. House. Thomas William House was born in England in 1814 and came to the United States as a young man. By 1840, he was in Houston building a dry goods, cotton factoring, and banking business that grew into one of the largest in the state. He was also active in steam and rail transportation and built the city’s first natural gas public utility. House was instrumental in the cotton trade for the Confederacy. It is said that at night, he would move to the cupola of his house in Galveston to study the Union blockade fleet offshore. The next morning, he would again look over the fleet, and if any ships were missing, he would assume they were chasing his blockade runners. He died one of the wealthiest men in Texas in 1880, but his will called for his business to be carried on in his name by his sons. House’s enormous wealth provided a life of privilege for his children, one of whom, Edward Mandell House, became a behind-the-scenes political organizer, first in Texas and then on the national and international scenes. As an influential confidant

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection and foreign policy adviser to President Woodrow Wilson from 1912 to 1919, House helped develop the Fourteen Points to be used as the basis for negotiations to end World War I, and then served as Wilson’s key adviser in Paris while the Treaty of Versailles was being drafted. Wilson even left House in charge of the American viewpoint in the negotiations at one point while the president returned to this country. House was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1923. Back in 1899, when Dorchester discovered the stamps in House’s papers, he took the unusual step of having an affidavit attesting to their genuineness typewritten on the back of the folded letter or envelope. One of these finds was an Independence cut-out adhesive stamp that was soon sold to Phillip La Renotiere von Ferrary, the anonymous “wealthy Parisian collector,” for the sum of $1,000, according to stamp journal accounts of the period. This item is pictured in one of the 1922 Ferrary auction catalogs, with portions of two typewritten lines of the affidavit clearly showing where the letter was folded carelessly. A second find in the House papers was an 1864 letter to House from Gonzales bearing one of the small book labels used as stamps at the time by the Gonzales postmaster. When this letter was sold by the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York in 1999, the auction description noted: “On the back of the folded letter is a typewritten notarized affidavit from T. W. House in 1899, attesting to the origin and authenticity of the cover.” It is possible, if not probable, that Dorchester discovered other Texas locals in the voluminous House correspondence, but to date, no other postmasters’ stamps with the typed statement on back have been recorded. Students of irony may pause here to ponder the many ways in which this first stamp from Independence was touched by the hand of the House family during the first few decades of its existence: 1. It was owned, albeit unknowingly, by T. W. House, to whom it arrived as a commonplace postage stamp on a simple business letter in 1864.

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors 2. It was discovered by his granddaughter’s spouse among the House papers in 1899, with the pride of ownership eventually landing in the hands of that “wealthy Parisian collector,” Ferrary, soon thereafter. 3. Its subsequent transfer of ownership back to America when it was purchased by Arthur Hind at the 1922 Ferrary sale was greatly, though doubtless unknowingly, affected by House’s son Edward. His position as an influential adviser to President Wilson from 1912 to 1919 failed to prevent a great war and then helped to bring it to a disastrous conclusion (considering that the Treaty of Versailles led directly to war again in 1939 and continued unrest in the Middle East today). This prompted the French government to claim the stamp along with the rest of Ferrary’s great collection as reparations owed to France by Germany, where Ferrary’s will had directed the collection to be sent. The poorly handled French auction led to confusion and reduced realizations for Ferrary’s magnificent collection. The Independence stamp that Ferrary purchased for $1,000 sold in the auction for $314.

There is a final footnote to this tale of E. D. Dorchester and Texas philately. In his later collecting years, Dorchester gave many talks about stamps and stamp collecting in school classrooms. After addressing one group of children who were particularly interested in the history depicted on American stamps, he got the idea of publishing a book of stories on the historical background of our commemorative stamps. These stories, he mused, “should have an appeal for every American boy and girl because the stamp commemorates salient and exciting events of American history.” Dorchester found a willing publisher, Steck Company, in Austin, and signed up Texas author Lillian Elizabeth Barclay to pen the stories. The result was a 612-page hardbound book titled They Dreamed and Dared: America’s History in Stamps and Stories, published in 1941. The volume contains seventy-five essays on various historical topics, each preceded by a picture of the stamp concerning that event taken from Dorchester’s album. Though

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Barclay’s book is long out of print, it is fairly easy to find on rare book Internet sites, and it provides interesting reading even today. Dorchester died in 1947. The last of the Texas collector-discoverers to be discussed for our tale is Fred Green, a San Antonio real estate agent who discovered at least ten of the Texas postmasters’ stamps over the course of his collecting career, far more than anyone other than the earlier San Antonian Albert Steves, Sr. Most of Green’s discoveries came during the 1920s, a couple of decades after Steves’s major finds. Like Steves, Green was well known in local and state philatelic circles, and also in the growing community of Confederate collectors. August Dietz, writing in his 1929 The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America, described Green as “a recognized authority on Texas locals,” and mentioned his visits to both Goliad and Gonzales seeking information there from those old enough to recall the Civil War years. Green was one of a number of avid collectors who placed ads in small-town papers across the state offering to buy old stamps and family letters; typically, an ad stated that he would be in town on a certain date, staying in a certain hotel, and would pay cash for any such items purchased. In many ways, he was a good searcher, learning early how to get attention in the newspapers of the day. In 1929, Green wrote a lengthy article about these Texas stamps for his hometown San Antonio newspaper. It was carried as a Sunday feature, with photos of Green along with several different stamps from Beaumont, Goliad, Gonzales, and Independence. In a shrewd and calculating move, Green even provided a list of the stamp values for the children or grandchildren who “may still have these old letters up in the garret in an old cow-hide trunk. If you should find any of the stamps I have mentioned, the first thing you will want to know is what are they worth? So I will give you a list of prices I have known them to bring, when in fine condition and on the original envelope.” There followed a list of prices for more than a dozen stamps, mostly in the $25 to $50 range.

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors This article was soon picked up by other newspapers in various Texas towns, gaining an impressive bit of publicity for Green and possibly providing more inquiries and leads for his search for the elusive stamps. What was easily the most significant find of Green’s career came a few years before these newspaper articles. It was his discovery of five Beaumont stamps from the Colonel William B. Duncan correspondence, which occurred in the early 1920s, probably around 1922. There were four of the small Beaumont stamps, including both the yellow paper and the pink or rose paper varieties, and the unique Large Beaumont stamp on yellow paper, still the only known copy and arguably the greatest of all the Texas postmasters’ stamps. Other discoveries by Green include at least four of the Gonzales labels, according to a 1933 study of the Confederate provisionals by Charles J. Phillips, and one of the two known Plum Creek cut-out adhesives. Green today is remembered in a positive light by many, though there are some who hold guarded opinions of him. When he died at the age of ninety-six, in 1987, Richard Byne, the noted Confederate philatelic researcher, who also lives in San Antonio, remembered him in an obituary for the Confederate Philatelist, the journal of the Confederate Stamp Alliance: An avid collector of Confederates, [he] was a third generation San Antonian. He was the last living charter member of the Texas Philatelic Association, and pursued his hobby with great zeal until in recent years his eyes began to fail. While his eyes may have failed, his sharp mind never did, and his stories of how, where, and under what circumstances he obtained this or that wonderful Confederate cover never ceased to enthrall all those who heard them. We suffer another loss in the passing of this splendid man.

Another prominent philatelist who grew up in San Antonio and recalls going to Green’s house to buy stamps remembers him as a very nice man who still owned such rarities in his later years as

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection two important United States postmasters’ provisionals, one from Baltimore and another from St. Louis. Another prominent Confederate philatelist, however, remembers him as having a vivid imagination and producing otherwise unbelievable items for the philatelic world based solely on his claim that he had found them in original settings. A few questions are also posed by the prices Green quoted in the 1929 newspaper articles mentioned above. Most of the prices appear to be quite low; the stamps he listed would have sold for considerably more than the $25 to $50 value he quoted. Curiously, though, he listed two much more expensive stamps, a Large Beaumont on rose paper valued at $1,000 and a Goliad on green paper priced at $500. These two stamps must have been figments of his imagination. They simply do not exist, or perhaps we should say that no one, including Green, has ever produced one. They are not in any catalog providing information on Confederate stamps, and all the leading students today just shake their heads in disbelief when questioned about them. We can only speculate as to why he included them in the article. Perhaps Green felt that the low $25 to $50 prices he listed for the known stamps might not provide the encouragement needed to prod his readers to clamber up into a hot attic to search through dusty old letters, so maybe the $1,000 figure would give them the necessary incentive to get going on a treasure hunt. The tone of the entire article, originally published in the San Antonio Express on July 21, 1929, and later carried in newspapers in Goliad and Dallas, was the idea of the treasure hunt for golden nuggets in the family’s old letters. The beginning paragraph of the piece simply and effectively touted that idea: “Your granddad may have left you a small fortune and you have never awakened to the fact. Where are his old business letters? Or where are your grandmother’s old love letters? How few of us know that the stamps on those letters may be worth money, lots of it.” Later in the piece, while discussing the Goliad stamps, Green declares: “If you had a green Goliad stamp and it was in fine condition and on the original envelope, you would have no trouble in selling it for enough to buy a new automobile with the proceeds.”

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The Discovery of the Texas Postmasters' Stamps by Texas Collectors Likewise, the Large Beaumont stamp on rose paper is described as “one of the hardest to find, if not the rarest of all Confederate provisionals.” Of course, neither of these stamps exists. Could there be another explanation for Green’s listing them in the article? Perhaps, though it is quite difficult to think of one that can withstand scrutiny. There could have been, at the time, rumors of these two stamps in the collecting and searching community, and Green might have hoped to flush them out with the high values he assigned to them. But this seems unlikely; the “treasure hunt” idea still would appear to be the best explanation.

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THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

CHAPTER

The World’s Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections

3

P O S TAG E

A S A RU L E , P O S T M A S T E R S ’ P R OV I S I O N A L S W E R E

homely stamps, crudely produced by a local printshop, often with no more than the town name and the postage fee indicated. It is easy to see why this would be the case, since the desire to have the stamp produced came from a small-town postmaster whose design talents and local printing resources may have been quite limited. At the time these Texas stamps were created, many countries all over the world were producing stamps that could credibly be called beautiful works of art, skillfully engraved and printed. Colorful stamps abounded, portraying monarchs and national leaders. The locals were not nearly as attractive, but they had one special attribute that made them intensely desirable to collectors everywhere: rarity. As simple and crude as these designs were, the most knowledgeable and diligent philatelists all coveted a copy for their albums. In this chapter we will trace the journey of many of these Texas postmasters’ stamps through some of the finest and greatest collections the world has ever seen. We will then also track their history in the important collections put together by Texas philatelists. To begin, one should remember that by 1910, philatelists knew of the existence of two different varieties of Beaumont stamps, eleven varieties from Goliad, two from Gonzales, two from Helena, one from Independence, and two from Victoria. Of these twenty types of stamps, there were probably no more than a total

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection of about forty examples that had been discovered and were thus available to the world’s great collectors. Almost half of this number were in the hands of Albert Steves. We know that in 1910 or 1911, Steves sold his entire holding of Texas rarities to the New England Stamp Company in Boston. This acquisition quickly provided inventory for a ravenous market for rare stamps, and the Texas postmasters’ stamps soon went forth to add their own understated glamour to some already magnificent collections. In the early years of philately, perhaps through World War I and even into the 1920s, a handful of immensely wealthy men built some spectacular and celebrated collections of the world’s greatest philatelic treasures. Some of these collectors were nobles from titled European families with untold inherited wealth, and some were latter-day industrial magnates or financial wizards whose wealth came from their own endeavors. By snapping up rarities as soon as they were offered, regardless of the price, and by encouraging the efforts of leading dealers to seek out those other rarities they still needed, these highly competitive and often eccentric stamp enthusiasts reached levels of philatelic achievement that will likely never again be matched. And in doing so, they carefully preserved these fragile and newly discovered bits of paper for collectors who would follow in their footsteps. As Dr. Stanley Bierman declared in The World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors, which I have relied upon extensively for this section: In a large sense, the great collectors were conservators who gathered, preserved and held custodianship of their philatelic wealth for future generations . . . as links in a chain, philatelic treasures of one collection were passed along in a type of patrimonial succession at auction sales to a select few wealthy new owners.

First and foremost among these legendary early collectors is Philipp La Renotiere von Ferrary, son of the Duke and Duchess of Galleria. Ferrary, born in 1850, was usually identified as a “wealthy Parisian collector” in the stamp journals of the time. As a young man he renounced any claim to the title and inheritance

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections

FIGURE 3.1. Philipp La Renotiere von Ferrary, who amassed what was thought to be the largest and best stamp collection in existence during his lifetime. He died in 1917.

of the Duke of Galleria when he discovered that his father was actually an Austrian military officer with whom his mother had been involved, but his mother was reputedly the richest woman in Europe, so young Philipp could still spend enormous sums on stamps. He began collecting around 1860 and by the 1880s was widely considered to have the largest and best collection in existence. Ferrary was intense, eccentric, even reclusive in his later years. But most of all, he had a passion, an obsession for stamps and for completing his collection. He hired a Paris dealer, Pierre Mahe, to serve as curator of his collection, but he himself still trav-

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection eled extensively in Europe and London, acquiring stamps with abandon, both from dealers and from collectors. He purchased a number of already important collections of the period intact from their owners, a practice that provided him not only with the great rarities known to philately but also with an unbelievably massive assemblage of the less-than-rare stamps of the day. The stamp world was astounded by both the quality and the quantity of his immense holdings when they were dispersed in a series of auctions after his death. He spent much of his life in a magnificent Paris mansion, but in his later years he developed a strong dislike of the French government, and in 1908 he became a citizen of Switzerland. Ferrary was in Holland when World War I broke out, and he returned to Paris in 1915. He was rebuffed by French authorities on a later attempt to enter the country in 1916 because of his well-known hostility toward France and his equally well-known affinity with the Germans—he was a “lad of the German fatherland,” he told one English dealer (Bierman, 38). Ferrary died in Switzerland in 1917 of a heart attack, and his will provided for most of his collection to be given to the Berlin Postal Museum. But the majority of it was still in his Paris mansion, and the French government seized it, claimed the value as a part of Germany’s war reparations, and sold it in a series of auctions in 1921–1925 and 1929 for a news-making total of $1.4 million. The government hired a philatelic dealer to assist in the sale, but the collection was treated as enemy property to be disposed of quickly, and thus the auctions were poorly planned and cataloged, with inadequate descriptions for many items. In the words of one modern-day researcher, the purpose of the entire affair “was not an appreciation of philatelic details but the quickest possible realization of the material” (noted by Professor Carlrichard Brühl, who in 1987 reissued the Ferrary catalogs, titled Die Ferrary-Auktionem and published by Joachim Ehrhardt, Stuttgart, Germany). The Ferrary “platoon” of Texas locals totaled at least sixteen stamps, possibly seventeen or eighteen; poorly worded lot descriptions make it difficult to determine an exact number. This group-

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections ing is an almost unbelievable accomplishment considering the fact that many of the stamps had only recently been discovered. Perhaps it is a testimony to Ferrary’s reputation among leading dealers as an eager, rapacious buyer who would not quibble about an inflated price or vacillate when offered a questionable item: Included among Ferrary’s Texas stamps were: GOLIAD:

The unique 5-cent Type II horizontal pair, with the left stamp being the one with the “GOILAD” spelling error. Incredibly, the spelling mistake was not even mentioned in the auction catalog description, but it did show clearly in the photo plate. It sold for 11,000 francs ($1,232; U.S. dollar prices shown here include a sales tax of 17½–19½ percent, and are figured at the then-current rate of exchange, which varied from a high of 9.12 cents per franc to a low of 3.78 cents per franc over the five-year period of the sales), the highest price of any of his Texas rarities. The 5-cent Type I black on rose paper on a cover “front,” still today the only such example of this stamp available to collectors on the original envelope. This piece sold for 2,200 francs ($235). (A “front” is simply the front piece of envelope paper, with the back piece of paper no longer present.) The 10-cent Type I black on rose paper stamp on a Confederate patriotic cover. The catalog, again incredibly, showed only the right one-fourth of the cover, never mentioning or illustrating the patriotic design printed on the left side of the envelope. The cover sold for 3,200 francs ($342). A 10-cent Type II black on gray paper stamp with the “GOILAD” misspelling on a cover. This time the error was mentioned in the lot description. It sold for 1,050 francs ($112). Also two off-cover stamps, a 5-cent Type I used that brought 3,000 francs ($321) and a 10-cent Type II used that went for 5,500 francs ($589). BEAUMONT:

Three Beaumont stamps, including an off-cover example of the 10-cent black on yellow paper, used and faulty, that sold for

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection 420 francs ($45) and two 10-cent black on pink paper, both still on their original envelopes. The first, an excellent copy on a cover from the Lloyd correspondence discovered in 1902, sold for 2,600 francs ($275; Ferrary had paid $1,400). Another cover, in poor condition, from the later Watson correspondence find, brought only 1,950 francs ($108). GONZALES:

Three of the curious book labels that were used as postage stamps by the Gonzales postmaster. A pair of 5-cent stamps were on a cover from the Miller correspondence, which came to the market around 1898. This cover sold for 3,600 francs ($385). There was also a single off-cover faulty copy of the 10cent stamp, which sold for only 180 francs ($19). INDEPENDENCE:

One example of the 10-cent Independence “cut-out” stamp, on a folded letter addressed to T. W. House, the Houston banker. It brought 3,050 francs ($314). HELENA:

A single off-cover used example of the 10-cent stamp, which sold for 900 francs ($92). Very likely another 10-cent stamp and also a 5-cent stamp in a large lot of twenty-four different stamps. (A poor lot description makes a positive identification impossible.) VICTORIA:

One 5-cent and one 10-cent Victoria stamp; both were sold in one lot, which brought 6,000 francs ($618). WHARTON AND WAXAHACHIE:

Two covers with peculiar blue “labels” purported to be provisionals from Waxahachie and Wharton (they will be discussed fully in chapter 7). They are not included in the total number of stamps in Ferrary’s Texas collection here because their authenticity is still in question.

Ferrary’s showing of Texas postmasters’ stamps remains a most impressive accomplishment to this day. In sheer numbers, his effort has been eclipsed by that of only one other collector, while a couple of others have come close to his totals.

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections After reposing in the gilded albums of the famous Ferrary in Paris for years, the Texas “platoon” of locals did an about-face and journeyed back across the Atlantic to grace the collections of several wealthy and famous American philatelists. The first of these to join our story is Arthur Hind, of Utica, New York. Hind was born in England in 1856 and came to America in 1890 to make his fortune, which he promptly did. He was the son of a dress goods manufacturer, and he and a partner established a plush fabric mill near Utica that profited greatly from Ford Motor Company orders for upholstery for the rapidly growing automobile industry. He quickly became a wealthy man, with an estimated personal fortune approaching $10 million (Bierman, 139), an impressive accomplishment in those pre-income tax days. Hind began collecting stamps in 1891, and for the next thirty years purchased a number of valuable intact collections (including one of France for $170,000) and many of the greatest rarities of the world as they became available. When Ferrary’s massive collection was sold by the French government in a series of auctions in Paris, Hind attended the events in person and acquired many of Ferrary’s treasures, apparently including a number of his Texas stamps. He gained lasting philatelic fame at one of these sales when he bought what was considered the world’s most famous and expensive stamp, the 1856 British Guiana 1-cent black on magenta stamp, the only one known, for $32,148. By 1929 Hind had built what was thought to be the finest and most complete collections of U.S. and Confederate stamps ever assembled. He seemed to lose interest after that, since he had nothing else left to collect. Hind put the collection up for sale in late 1929, just before the stock market crash and just after refusing an offer of $480,000 for it. The financial turbulence of 1929 and the early 1930s made it impossible to sell the holdings intact, which was his desire. He died in 1933 at the age of seventyseven, and the magnificent collection was dispersed in a series of auctions in New York later that year. The middle years of the Great Depression proved to be an inopportune time to auction rare stamps, and the results were dismal. The collection for which

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Hind had refused an offer of $480,000 only four years earlier sold for a mere $244,810. We can see from the auction catalog that Hind had gathered a total of ten of the rare Texas locals, several of which came from Ferrary. (We can also see from catalog illustrations Hind’s horrendous habit of attaching rare covers to album pages with thick adhesive tape. Philatelists today still cringe at these photographs; Hind’s carelessness caused considerable damage to many of the covers and created much work for later professional restorers.) Hind’s Texas holdings included: BEAUMONT:

Two covers, one with a small 10-cent black on yellow paper and the other with a 10-cent black on pink paper. GOLIAD:

A 5-cent Type I black on gray used single, ex-Ferrary. A 10-cent Type I black on rose on a patriotic cover, ex-Ferrary. A 5-cent Type II black on dark blue single on a cover with another stamp removed, ex-Ferrary. A 10-cent Type II black on dark blue used single, pen canceled. A 10-cent Type II black on gray used single, ex-Ferrary. A 10-cent Type II black on gray “GOILAD” spelling error on cover, ex-Ferrary. VICTORIA:

Two singles, both described as unused—a 5-cent Type I and a 10-cent Type II, both ex-Ferrary.

A contemporary of Hind’s was New York financier Alfred H. Caspary. Caspary also personally attended the fabulous Ferrary sales in Paris and later picked off a few of the better Texas items in Hind’s auction to build his own collection. He was a native of New York and the founder of his own eponymous Wall Street investment firm, which survived the 1929 stock market crash and then became a major force in the New York financial world. Born in 1868, Caspary began collecting stamps early in his life;

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections his important acquisitions, however, date from the early 1920s. A most knowledgeable philatelist, he was able to snap up the greatest pieces from a number of the finest collections to come on the market for many years, and during this period some truly superb collections were dispersed. The Caspary collection, Bierman notes, “came to surpass all existing United States and Confederate stamp collections ever assembled” (152). Caspary died in 1955 at the age of seventy-seven, and his philatelic holdings were sold in 1956 by the New York auction firm of H. R. Harmer. He had avoided publicity during his collecting life, and collectors all over the world were simply astounded to discover the scope and quality of this marvelous collection. In a series of thirteen auctions, all with lavishly illustrated catalogs, philatelists eager to acquire their own piece of the Caspary legacy bid the total realization up to $2,895,146, a record at the time for the most valuable collection in philatelic history. All of these superlatives can be repeated and doubled when describing his Texas Confederate postmasters’ provisionals section. These were sold along with his other Confederate provisionals in a separate auction with a prophetic, as well as florid, foreword by August Dietz, the renowned expert on Confederate stamps: It would seem as though at one time or another, all the rare Postmasters Provisionals of the Confederacy, on their farflung wanderings, had decided to meet and hold their last assembly in the sanctuary prepared for them by Alfred H. Caspary, there to find roof and rest and recognition, and there to await the final rites that would send them out into the world as missionaries of the stamps of The Lost Cause. With the passing of their champion, this treasure-chest is unlocked for the first time and its dazzling contents spread out in the public market place. Such an occasion as this can occur but once in philatelic history. There will never be another Caspary; but in future years, after this great wealth of material is dispersed to the four winds, many a collector here and abroad will point with pride to some gem among his treasures and call but a name: Caspary.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection The Texas local section is going to make some Texans round-up and market a good size herd of cattle and probably throw in the ranch, too. But it’s going to be “wuth it” to “rope” the finest and rarest Lone Star State collection ever corralled. Others may “gaze on ’em and weep.”

We can smile at Dietz’s lame attempt to write like a Texan might speak, but we must also give him credit for some accurate predictions. For one, the name Caspary is still spoken with reverence by veteran collectors here and abroad, and the Caspary provenance is almost always listed in album notes and auction catalog descriptions. And for another, his prediction that this “can occur but once” has been remarkably accurate. He was writing about the entire range of Confederate provisionals, of course, but his comment was especially insightful in regard to the exceptional group of Texas locals. No one has come even close to him since 1956, either in sheer numbers (he had thirty-three!) or in unique pieces (he had four) or in scope (he had examples from all ten postmasters). Several factors contributed to Caspary’s achievement here, including time, wealth, and a strong presence in the philatelic world. He was a serious buyer over a period of thirty-five or more years, allowing him the patience to wait for other collections to be dispersed and for other “finds” to be made (both the Large Beaumont and the Port Lavaca stamp were discovered during this period and eventually found their way into a Caspary album). He also obviously had a deep enough pocketbook to acquire whatever pleased him. And he was well known to all the major dealers likely to come across (or track down) stamps of the rarity and quality he desired. Great collections cannot be built without the help of great dealers, whose knowledge, experience, and skills will enable the collector to gather those truly rare objects that allow a collection to rise to the highest level. His presence in the philatelic community assured him of the help of the finest dealers in the industry. The Texas locals in the Caspary collection included:

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections AUSTIN:

One of the 10-cent black cut-out stamps affixed to a cover, a provisional discovered in the late 1930s, and not listed in the Scott Catalogue at the time (it is now listed). BEAUMONT:

Two 10-cent black on yellow paper stamps, each on a separate cover. Two 10-cent black on pink paper stamps, on separate covers. A used off-cover single of the 10-cent black on pink. The real star here, a cover bearing the large 10-cent black on yellow stamp, the only one known; this was found in the 1920s and later acquired by Caspary. GOLIAD:

Eleven copies of the various Goliad stamps, easily the largest accumulation since Albert Steves sold his in 1910–1911: Two 5-cent Type I’s—one black on gray (ex-Ferrary and -Hind) and the other a used black on rose, both off-cover singles. Another black on rose on a cover front (ex-Ferrary). Two 10-cent Type I’s, one used off-cover and the other on a patriotic cover (ex-Ferrary and -Hind). A wonderful pair of the 5-cent Type II stamps, used, with the left stamp being the “GOILAD” spelling error (ex-Ferrary). Four of the 10-cent Type II stamps, one a used off-cover single and the other three on similar covers addressed to Corpus Christi, and one of the latter also had the “GOILAD” error. GONZALES:

Four covers bearing the unusual book labels sold as stamps in Gonzales. The first had a pair of the 5-cent gold on dark blue; the other three came with the 10-cent stamps, two on garnet and one on black paper. HALLETTSVILLE:

The only known Hallettsville provisional, a 10-cent black on gray blue paper cut out and pasted on an 1863 folded letter. HELENA:

In very small type, the catalog began the Helena lots with this notice: “The following 4 lots comprise all the ‘Helena’ copies known.” There followed the two 5-cent and the two 10-cent

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection stamps, all off-cover and used. Each of the four lot descriptions contained one or the other of the following statements: “Only one other exists, offered in the following lot” or “Only one other exists, offered in the preceding lot.” (Actually, there are five known Helena stamps, but the catalog writers were unaware of this.) INDEPENDENCE:

Two of the rare cut-out and paste-on stamps, both from the same correspondence, addressed to a captain in Terry’s Regiment in Shreveport, Louisiana. PLUM CREEK:

The Plum Creek provisional was introduced to the philatelic world in the Caspary catalog. Probably discovered in the 1930s, it is merely a tiny diamond-shaped piece of paper with a manuscript “10” on it, also cut and pasted on the cover. It was thought to be unique when it came to light, but now a second example is known. This item was unlisted in the Scott Catalogue at the time, but is now listed. PORT LAVACA:

The only known Port Lavaca stamp, a crudely printed design showing a river steamboat, offered at auction for the first time. It too was unlisted when the auction catalog was written, but is listed now. VICTORIA:

All three varieties of the Victoria stamps, two off-cover singles, one unused and one used, and the third on a cover from Victoria to La Grange. This is the cover found by Albert Steves around 1882, and one of only two such covers known today. Caspary remains the only philatelist to acquire an example of all three listed varieties of Victoria postmaster James A. Moody’s handiwork.

Among the collectors who chose to snap up some of Caspary’s treasures during the great 1956 dispersal were Alexander S. Kirkman of the New York Kirkman industrialist family, and Josiah K. Lilly, Jr., of the Lilly pharmaceutical family. Kirkman spent only about three years building his collection of Confeder-

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections ate postmasters’ provisionals before selling off the entire group in 1962 through the H. R. Harmer auction firm. At the time, he had a total of ten Texas locals, eight of them from the Caspary sale. He had only two covers, one with the unique Hallettsville provisional and the other with the Plum Creek stamp (both exCaspary). His off-cover selection included a black on pink Beaumont, three different Goliad 5-cent Type I’s and a 10-cent Type II, one Gonzales label, and both a 5-cent and a 10-cent Helena stamp. All but one of the Goliads and the Gonzales label were ex-Caspary. Lilly’s Texas Confederate provisionals were a stronger and more impressive holding. The grandson of Eli Lilly and an heir to the vast Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, he was a publicity-shy collector of many things, including rare books, military miniatures (sometimes known as “toy soldiers”), and gold coins as well as stamps, and all of his collections were among the finest known. For many years, Lilly dealt only with Raymond Weill, who with his brother Roger formed the legendary Weill Brothers stamp firm in New Orleans. Weill kept a list of stamps Lilly needed, and would gather them for him over a year’s time. Every January Weill would travel to Lilly’s home in Indianapolis to present the past year’s acquisitions along with a bill, which was usually in the range of $200,000 to $300,000 (Bierman, 226). After Lilly died in 1966, the Robert A. Siegel firm in New York was chosen to auction his renowned collection, and over a series of sales in 1967 and 1968, eager collectors chased the prices up to a final total of $3,144,752. Lilly’s Texas section contained a strong showing of fifteen stamps, and all but one had come to him from the Caspary sale some eleven years earlier. Several of Caspary’s most important pieces were here, including the Large Beaumont cover, the unique Goliad 5-cent pair including one with the “GOILAD” error, the 5-cent Goliad Type I on a cover front, the 10-cent Goliad on a patriotic cover, the two attractive Gonzales label covers, and a set of the Helena stamps. It was a most impressive Texas group, and it has not been matched in the years since 1967. In fact, it was more than thirty years later before another collection could show off as many as ten of the Texas stamps.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection That collection belonged to Charles E. Kilbourne II, and his wife, Lucy, longtime veterans of the Confederate philatelic community. Like Caspary, they devoted several decades to building their collection, and thus had the patience to wait for key items to appear on the market. Scott Trepel, president of the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, writing in the 1999 auction catalog, declared the Kilbournes’ holdings “the most important Confederate collection ever assembled,” with the postmasters’ provisionals rivaling the Ferrary, Caspary, and Lilly collections. The Kilbournes’ ten Texas items included three Beaumont covers, one with the small 10-cent black on yellow, and two with the 10-cent black on pink, all ex-Caspary. There were two Goliad covers, one the front with the 5-cent Type I, and the other with a 10-cent Type II, again both ex-Caspary. In addition, there was a 10-cent Gonzales label on cover, one of the Independence cutouts on cover, and a 5-cent Type I Victoria unused single, all exCaspary. The only two Kilbourne items that had not been owned by Caspary were from Victoria, both of them 10-cent Type I stamps; one was an unused single and the other was on a cover. This extremely rare cover, one of two known, sold for $115,500, by far a record price for any Texas postmasters’ provisional at the time (a record that still stands today). Since the Kilbourne sale in 1999, only one other philatelist has acquired and then sold a strong group of these Texas locals. The last in this line of fabulously wealthy philatelists who built worldrenowned collections is William H. Gross, the founder and leader of Pacific Investment Management Company, better known as PIMCO. Gross manages more than $850 billion in assets for PIMCO, and is one of the most influential financial experts in the country. Like many of today’s collectors, he began collecting as a child and then returned to the hobby with a passion in his adult years. He reportedly has a personal net worth of more than $1 billion and is thought to have spent in the neighborhood of $100 million on his stamps. In recent years, he has chosen to sell off certain countries or parts of his holdings, with the entire proceeds to be donated to various charities or nonprofit organizations that he and his wife,

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections Sue, support. So far, more than $15 million has been raised from these highly publicized sales and then passed on to such groups as Doctors Without Borders and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. In November 2009, the Gross collection of Confederate stamps was sold as a part of this effort through the Spink Shreves Galleries in New York, and the deluxe catalog revealed that he had acquired six of the Texas postmasters’ stamps. Included were two of the Beaumont items, both covers, one with a small 10-cent black on yellow and the other with a 10-cent black on pink (both were ex-Hind, and the latter also ex-Caspary and -Kilbourne). There were three Goliad covers. The first was the 5-cent Type I on a cover front, ex-Ferrary, -Caspary, -Lilly, and -Kilbourne; the second was a 10-cent Type II, ex-Caspary and -Kilbourne; the third was the 5-cent Type II on blue paper on a cover with another stamp missing, a well-known cover that is ex-Ferrary and -Hind. The last of Gross’s Texas items was a highlight, one of the 10-cent Victoria stamps on cover, also ex-Kilbourne. These six covers sold for a total of $267,400, with the money dedicated to the building of a 12,000-square-foot gallery to be named for Gross in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington.

The collectors mentioned above are all internationally known philatelists who built their Texas postmasters’ stamp holdings without any Texas connections. Several nice collections of these stamps have been created here in the Lone Star State by Texans, however, and four of them are worthy of mention here. While they do not compare with the stunning Caspary or Kilbourne showings, they do represent a solid achievement on the part of some homegrown Texas philatelists. The first of these was William L. Moody III of the legendary Galveston family with ties in ranching, banking, insurance, and investments. His father, William L. Moody, Jr. (himself the son of a prosperous banker), established the American National Insurance Company (ANICO) in 1905, which grew to be one of

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection the largest insurance companies in the nation. Moody Jr.’s four children, Will III, Shearn, Libbie, and Mary, were all true characters whose eccentricities and flamboyance gave Galvestonians (and Texans) plenty to talk about. Will III, the stamp collector, was the one who brought flamboyance to the family. He made a fortune on his own in the oil business in the 1920s, and he loved fast cars and speedboats. He even assembled a national championship women’s basketball team called the Galveston ANICOs in the late 1930s. The team was a part of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and won the national title in 1938 and 1939. His oil business crashed during the Great Depression, forcing him into bankruptcy, and his father “never forgave his son’s failure,” reported Steven Long in the March 31, 1991, Houston Chronicle. When William L. Moody, Jr., died in 1954, he was reportedly one of the country’s ten wealthiest men, with a fortune estimated at $400 million. He left his son Will III $1. Will promptly hired a lawyer, and eventually he got a $3.6 million settlement, to be shared with his daughters. His brother and sisters were also notable characters. Libbie married a Galveston congressman and became a renowned hostess in Washington. Shearn, groomed to take over the family business, left his topcoat behind on a trip to frigid Chicago in 1936 and, either too cheap or “too macho” to buy another one there, caught pneumonia and died a few days later (as related in Gary Cartwright’s 1991 book, Galveston: A History of the Island). Mary became the family matriarch when her father and husband both died in 1954, and she controlled family affairs until her own death in 1986 at the age of ninety-four. She traveled constantly, always at night, never on planes, and was revered by Galvestonians. When not occupied with his boats, cars, and basketball players, Will built a magnificent stamp collection that was sold in a series of auctions by H. R. Harmer in 1950. Five of the Texas locals were included. Two were covers with the 10-cent black on pink Beaumont stamp; one was a pair of the 5-cent Gonzales labels on cover; another was an attractive 10-cent Independence cut-out on a cover; and the last was a 10-cent Victoria Type I unused single.

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections The next Texan to make a splash in the rarefied world of Confederate provisionals was Camille Sams Lightner of Brownsville. Like Will III, she was the child of a wealthy father. Her dad, Earl C. Sams, was the “first man” hired by James Cash Penney to help him run his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1907. Sams soon partnered with Penney, and in 1917 became the day-to-day manager of the entire J. C. Penney organization. Sams was president until 1946 and chairman of the board until his death in 1950; he was the chief executive of the giant retail empire for thirtythree years. Sams had two daughters, Camille and Gladys, who grew up in New York, but both married Texans and went with their spouses back to the Lone Star State. Camille married Larry Lightner in 1934 and moved with him to Brownsville. Gladys and her husband, Dean Porter, soon joined them there. Earl Sams had put his huge block of J. C. Penney stock into a foundation, and the daughters began managing it after his death, spreading the money into education, medical, social, environmental, and other charitable projects in Brownsville and South Texas. The single largest project was a zoo for the city and the Rio Grande Valley. Those who visit the zoo in Brownsville know it as the Gladys Porter Zoo, and it is internationally recognized for the natural settings built for its animals. After Camille’s death, a local theater was created and named for her, the Camille Lightner Playhouse. It is now celebrating more than forty years in Brownsville as a year-round venue for plays, musicals, and youth workshops, and is fondly known locally as “the Camille.” Mrs. Lightner acquired a powerful Confederate provisional collection largely from the Weill Brothers in New Orleans. They had bought almost half of the Caspary Confederates for stock, and she cannily chose the best pieces for her own collection, which won a large gold medal at the 1960 London International Stamp Exhibition. Mrs. Lightner died in 1962 at the age of fortynine, and the Weills, who were honorary pallbearers at her funeral, later repurchased her collection. Because the collection was both purchased and sold privately, we don’t know much about the specific items she had, but we do know she had the 10-cent Large

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Beaumont stamp on cover, the unique piece still considered one of the greatest of all Texas Confederate locals. A landmark auction in 1994 by the Robert A. Siegel firm in New York City dispersed what can be described as the finest Texas postal history collection ever assembled at the time. Described only as the Camina collection, it was sold on behalf of José Luis Castillejo, a Spanish gentleman who preferred anonymity at the time of the sale. He is a member of a family from the Spanish aristocracy and was the Spanish consul in Houston at the time he built the collection. A consummate philatelist and postal historian, he quickly became interested in the postal history of the Lone Star State when he came to his official post in Houston. The Camina collection had a total of six of the Texas Confederate adhesive postmasters’ stamps in it, with the unique Large Beaumont cover easily being the most important piece not only in the Confederate section but in the entire collection. This item had been acquired from the Raymond Weill stock when it was auctioned in 1989. There was also a Beaumont cover with one of the 10-cent black on pink stamps. Both Beaumont covers were from the Duncan correspondence. The collection also had two Goliad 10-cent Type II stamps, both on cover, one being the “GOILAD” spelling error. (The other Goliad cover, with the correct spelling, was a newly discovered piece, addressed to Susan Moody, the wife of the Victoria postmaster James A. Moody, creator of the Victoria locals. This cover was acquired by the author directly from family members in 1988 and sold to Castillejo shortly thereafter.) The Camina group of Texas locals was rounded out by two used off-cover stamps, one a 5-cent Helena and the other a 10-cent Victoria Type II. Another collection of these Texas postmasters’ stamps assembled in the Lone Star State was the work of John R. Hill, Jr., of Dallas. A 1944 graduate of Texas A&M University with an engineering degree, Hill was the president and chief executive officer of Gifford-Hill Company, one of the largest cement and construction materials companies in the United States. A longtime philatelist, Hill had already built and sold one major collection of Confederate stamps and postal history. A second collec-

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The World's Greatest Philatelists Acquire Their Own Texas Collections tion was later formed and frequently exhibited at stamp shows in the 1990s. This second Hill collection contained five of the Texas provisionals, with the key item being the unique Large Beaumont cover, acquired by Hill at the Camina collection auction in 1994. Hill also had two of the smaller pink Beaumont stamps on different covers, one from the Watson correspondence and a second sent by a Confederate Army private to his family in Mountain City (now San Marcos) in Hays County. The other two stamps in the collection were the unique Hallettsville cut-out adhesive and a 10-cent Goliad Type II stamp on a cover to Stonewall, Texas. Hill also had an example of a 10-cent San Antonio handstamp cut off a yellow envelope and pasted on another as postage. Some experts think it is a genuine adhesive local, though others disagree, suggesting that it may have just been a postal patron’s salvage attempt rather than a postal employee actually making a “stamp” to sell. Hill also had in his exhibit covers from Wharton and Waxahachie, both bearing a peculiar similar blue label as a potential stamp. There is considerable doubt about the authenticity of these (they will be discussed in chapter 7). There is a sad footnote to the Hill story here. After Hill’s death in 1998, his collection was purchased by stamp dealer Andrew Levitt of Danbury, Connecticut. Levitt sent the collection by his dealer friend Stanley Piller, of Walnut Creek, California, to a stamp show in Florida, where it was to be offered for sale. Upon leaving the show, Piller stopped at a hotel for directions, and while he was away from his rental car for a very short time, the trunk was opened and the collection, along with a portion of Piller’s own stock, was stolen, a loss placed at about $2 million. A portion of the lost stamps was recovered in 2003, when two men tried to sell them to a New York City gallery. But, as this is being written, it is still unclear whether Hill’s Texas rarities have been recovered or are still among the missing.

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THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

CHAPTER

The Printed Texas Stamps

4

P O S TAG E

POSTMASTERS FROM FIVE OF THESE TEXAS TOWNS—

Beaumont, Goliad, Helena, Victoria, and (Port) Lavaca—produced stamps much like one would find in a post office today (except that none were perforated, so they had to be cut apart with scissors). With the help of a small-town printer, locals were created that usually showed the town name, the word “Paid” or “Postage,” and a “5” or “10” numeral to denote the actual amount paid. A couple of these locals also bore the postmaster’s name. One even had an illustration of a steamboat. B E AU M O N T

There are approximately twenty Beaumont locals known to collectors today, and all were apparently used during mid-1864, a time when Union control of the Mississippi River made it especially difficult for Confederate postal authorities to ship more stamps to Texas post offices. The postmaster who brought forth these Beaumont rarities was Alexander Hinkle, a frail, physically disabled, modest, and unassuming Methodist minister. Hinkle, born in 1829 in Alabama, came to Texas in 1851 to join the East Texas Conference of the Methodist Church as a circuit minister. In 1855 he was appointed to the Dallas Circuit, and one winter of hard traveling on the Texas Blackland Prairie broke his health. He wrote in one

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection of his letters (quoted at txmethhistory.blogspot.com) about the severe winter weather: It would seem from the powers of these Northers that we had been tossed right under the North Pole. I have gone round my circuit twice [and] have been nearly frozen fifty times. These winds, Heavens, what winds! Blow, blow, blow they come, whistling, wheezing, screaming, piercing right straight, it would seem, from Iceland or some colder place til the life is nearly blown out of a poor fellow. O how often I have wished for a tree or a grove of them, to break the wind, if it were only off my nose. For I assure you by my honor that the drip from my nose has frozen an icical [sic] two inches long.

Hinkle served his church in various posts until his death in Houston in 1890, but his health and especially circulation problems with his legs made such service difficult. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was the pastor of a church in Sabine Pass, preaching while sitting in a chair. In November 1861 he enlisted as a chaplain in Colonel Ashley W. Spaight’s Eleventh Battalion of Texas Volunteers in the Confederate Army at the Sabine post. He served in that position until September 1863, when he was discharged as physically unfit for duty because of severe vein problems and ulcers in his legs. On December 5, 1863, Hinkle began serving as the Beaumont postmaster, a post he held until February 22, 1865, approximately fifteen months. Most of the stamps known today are still on the original envelopes that carried them through the mails, and all are from 1864, during Hinkle’s tenure as postmaster. The earliest is dated April 9 and the latest October 15 (a few are undated, and one with a November 12 postmark is a genuine envelope to which a loose, off-cover stamp was fraudulently added later). The first recorded mention of a Beaumont local in any philatelic journal came in 1895, when the St. Louis dealer Charles H. Mekeel illustrated a small yellow 10-cent Beaumont stamp in his September 19 issue of Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News, one of the prominent national philatelic journals of the time. The stamp,

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The Printed Texas Stamps

4.1. This photo of “A $6,000.00 Bunch of Beaumonts” appeared in 1902 in Mekeel’s Stamp Collector. It is still a most impressive sight today.

FIGURE

which was submitted by A. M. Rareshide of New Orleans, “purports to be a Confederate Provisional,” Mekeel acknowledged, but “unfortunately the stamp is not attached to any correspondence nor has it any history. We simply give the illustration as a matter of information and hope that more may be learned about it.” This stamp was apparently unappreciated in the philatelic world for the next few years. In 1902, the Texas and international stamp worlds were treated to one of the largest “finds” of Texas Confederate locals ever made, a group of five stamps from Beaumont, all 10 cents in denomination and all printed on pink paper. These stamps were acquired by Mekeel, who put a photo of them in the May 5, 1902, issue of his publication, now called Mekeel’s Stamp Collector, with the caption “A $6,000 Bunch of Beaumonts.” He also included in this photo the previous yellow 10-cent Beaumont stamp that had been “discredited.” As Mekeel tells the story, the yellow stamp was the first variety known and it was discredited and went begging for a long time. The stamp was a poor copy, not on the cover [envelope], and in the hands of a small dealer who could give no very good account of it. We declined it, but kept

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection a photograph of it when submitted to us. In 1895, the newspapers of the whole country published columns about the famous “find” of St. Louis stamps, of which we handled many thousand dollars’ worth, and the discovery soon after of the 10c Baltimore, which we sold for $4,400, with the result that we received old stamps, good, bad and indifferent, from every quarter of the country. [Author’s note: The St. Louis and Baltimore stamps mentioned here were earlier discoveries that received much nationwide newspaper coverage.] Among others that we bought during those “boom” days were the five Beaumont stamps illustrated [here]. These came to us through a column article in the “N. Y. Evening Telegram,” and we sold the whole “find” to one collector for $5,000. Later we resold for the owner’s account the middle one, not the finest or yet the poorest, for $1,400. These things read like fairy tales when singled out of the experience of stamp dealing over twenty-six years. This “find” of Beaumonts . . . on pink paper established the stamp and proved the yellow paper variety to have been alright, as it was printed from the same type and brass rule, although of smaller size. [Mekeel later noted that the one he sold went to Ferrary, the wealthy Paris collector, and apparently the yellow stamp pictured also went along, as it later appeared in the Ferrary auction catalog.]

Mekeel correctly noted that the yellow stamp was two millimeters shorter than the pink ones (18 by 20 mm, rather than 18 by 22 mm), a distinction that was almost universally overlooked by later philatelists, collectors, and editors. Indeed, this size difference is not mentioned at all in either the Scott or the Dietz catalog, today’s most widely used catalogs in the American philatelic world. The sheer rarity of these stamps partially accounts for this discrepancy; the size difference is immediately obvious when the two stamps are seen together. But very few dealers, collectors, or catalog editors have been fortunate enough to see them side by side. Most see only one or the other, and very infrequently if at all.

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The Printed Texas Stamps All five of these pink Beaumonts illustrated by Mekeel were on letters mailed by William H. Lloyd, a soldier in the Texas Cavalry, to his wife in Houston. Lloyd married Susan Lamone Ransom on March 24, 1863, and his five letters are all addressed to Mrs. S. L. Lloyd. Another Beaumont stamp surfaced in 1904, this one also reported in Mekeel’s journal. It, too, was still on the original envelope, sent by W. M. Newman, a Confederate Army soldier, to his sister, Miss E. J. Newman, in Independence, Texas. The next group of these locals to appear came from the Watson correspondence, discovered sometime after the 1904 Newman stamp, and during the time Ferrary, who died in 1917, was building his collection, since one is clearly illustrated in the Ferrary auction catalog. Claudius Samuel Watson first enlisted in the Confederate Army in Marshall, Texas, on April 19, 1861. He signed up for a one-year term in Colonel John S. “Rip” Ford’s Frontier Service, and was honorably discharged on April 19, 1862. He reenlisted a month later in Sabine Pass in Colonel Spaight’s Battalion, and was transferred to the Confederate Navy (Marine Department) in 1863, where he was detailed as assistant engineer on the CSS Sachem, a gunboat captured from Union forces in the Battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863. Watson was on the CSS Sachem when it ran the Union blockade and sailed to Veracruz, Mexico, in November 1864. The vessel and cargo were later sold there and he was discharged. He married his wife, Margaret, on January 8, 1864, in San Augustine, and their letters to each other, and to Margaret’s family in San Augustine, have produced for today’s collectors another five envelopes bearing Beaumont provisionals. The last discovery of Beaumont stamps came in the early 1920s, when San Antonio collector Fred Green acquired the Colonel William B. Duncan correspondence from Duncan’s daughter, Julia Duncan Welder. Colonel Duncan, who served as commander of Company F of Colonel Spaight’s Eleventh Battalion of Texas Volunteers, was a prolific letter writer to his wife, Celima, at their home in Liberty, and the family papers and letters are now held at the Sam Houston Regional Library in Liberty, so it seems most likely that Green actually purchased the envelopes

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection

FIGURE 4.2. This 1923 photo shows the famous “Large Beaumont” cover as it was discovered. Some restoration of the cover at the left has been done, as can be seen in the photo gallery. Reprinted by permission of The Collector’s Club.

from the Duncan correspondence, leaving the letters in Julia’s possession. Duncan was a pioneer settler in that southeast Texas region, and a well-known and respected rancher, cattle trader, and public servant, holding office as Liberty County clerk and sheriff in the 1840s and 1850s. (More information on this interesting character can be found in a recent biography of Duncan, Moss Bluff Rebel: A Texas Pioneer in the Civil War, by Philip Caudill, published in 2009 by Texas A&M University Press.) In addition to a few more copies of the pink and yellow paper stamps previously reported, the Duncan papers yielded a single copy of a much larger and more ornately printed Beaumont local. Approximately 20 by 30 millimeters in size, printed on yellow paper, this stamp included the words “Texas” and “Postage” and additional ornamentation at the top and bottom. It remains the only example known of this taller stamp, and it is known today as the Large Beaumont. It was first introduced to the philatelic world in July 1923, when it was illustrated in an article in The Collectors Club Philatelist (fig. 4.2). The author, George Walcott, displaying his collection of Confederate provisionals for club

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The Printed Texas Stamps members, noted, “Nothing received quite as much attention as a yellow Beaumont of a new type, a recent discovery and unique, and moreover in wonderful condition.” (It is clear that while the stamp may have been in wonderful condition, the envelope was suffering from careless opening, and was later restored. See the illustration in the photo gallery on page 113 to note the appearance of this item in recent years.) This Large Beaumont is one of the true icons of not only Texas postal history but Confederate philately as well. (Sadly, it is today a missing icon. It was in the John Hill collection that was stolen in Florida [discussed in chapter 3].) It should be mentioned here that the very first Beaumont stamp known, that dirty, bedraggled small yellow stamp pictured in 1895 as a possible newly found provisional, was, somewhere along its philatelic journey, fraudulently affixed to an envelope. (Stamps on their original envelope are valued at higher prices than off-cover examples that have been removed from their envelopes.) We know this particular stamp was not on an envelope when it was sent to Mekeel, for he mentions that fact. And we know it found its way across the Atlantic to Ferrary, for it is pictured in the 1922 Ferrary auction catalog, where it is still an off-cover stamp. Somewhere between 1922 and 1970, however, it was added to an envelope. Confederate expert Morris Everett discovered this and penned an article denouncing it in the March 1970 Confederate Philatelist, the journal of the Confederate Stamp Alliance. When the stamp and cover came to Everett’s attention, a bit of research turned up the photo in the Ferrary catalog. “When it subsequently acquired its envelope,” Everett noted caustically, “has not been established, but the ‘finished product’ has innocently passed through the hands of several knowledgeable collectors and dealers since then, gaining acceptance and increasing in monetary value along the way.” Two somewhat puzzling questions remain for students of the Beaumont stamps. First, it is certainly curious that a postmaster who was described as frail, in poor health, and unable to perform a chaplain’s role in the army would go to the trouble of finding

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection a printer and creating not one but two different stamps, when he could have simply written “Paid” on the envelope like most other small-town postmasters. The initiative shown here by Hinkle does seem a bit unlikely in this situation. Also curious is the fact that all of the existing envelopes bearing Beaumont stamps came from Postmaster Hinkle’s former mates in the Confederate military, mostly from Colonel Spaight’s Eleventh Battalion of Texas Volunteers. One other copy is known on an envelope from a Private Ragsdale in what appears to be the Daly Battalion. None are known today that were used by the residents or merchants of Beaumont on their family or commercial mail. VI C TO RI A

The Victoria stamps were all created by longtime postmaster James A. Moody. A native of Nova Scotia, Canada, Moody came to Victoria in 1835 at the age of twenty-seven. He lived there for the rest of his life, serving at various times as the city’s second mayor, district clerk, and justice of the peace. In 1841 he married Susan Linn, daughter of John J. Linn, a prominent soldier, Texas patriot, merchant, historian, and Victoria’s first mayor. Victoria’s first post office was established in 1838, during the Republic of Texas era, and Moody received the appointment as its first postmaster. He served continuously in that office during the Republic years, the United States period, and the Civil War years. His tenure of twenty-seven years came to an end on April 17, 1865, when the Confederate Post Office Department replaced him with R. H. Coleman. Moody family and local history accounts all hold that the post office was burned by Union troops who occupied the city after the war ended, thus destroying all stamps and post office records. Moody was apparently held personally responsible for the lost stamps and postal funds, and when he chose to cover the loss with his own funds, he was reportedly destroyed financially. The local stamps issued by Moody were printed by the Victoria Advocate newspaper, probably during the mid–Civil War years.

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The Printed Texas Stamps There are three different types known, all printed in reddishbrown ink on green paper. All three are 20 by 24 millimeters in size and were described by the early philatelic chronicler Charles Mekeel in 1897 as “very homely looking stamp[s], the design being made up of ordinary printer’s type, rule, and border.” The first two varieties are 5-cent and 10-cent stamps, with the numerals being large and thin; the third variety is a 10-cent stamp with the numeral being slightly smaller and a bold, back-slanted typeface. Approximately four or five examples of all three varieties are known today. Only two of these, both being the first 10-cent stamp, are still on the original letters and thus dated. One was mailed March 30, 1863, and the other June 23, 1863. Three other copies of the first 10-cent stamp are now known, two of them unused, and one, missing a large part of its right side, used. All of the five known 5-cent stamps are unused, and perhaps printed earlier, as there was no need for a 5-cent stamp once the postage rate was hiked from 5 cents to 10 cents on July 1, 1862. There are four known copies of the third variety, the 10-cent stamp with the smaller, bold numeral; two are unused and two used, all off-cover. The first recorded discovery of a Victoria stamp was noted in Mekeel’s September 1893 issue of the Philatelic Journal of America. This was the 10-cent stamp given to Albert Steves by Mrs. Arthur Guenther of the San Antonio flour-milling family. It was still on the original letter, addressed to her grandfather in La Grange. The industrious Steves soon after acquired a copy of the 5-cent stamp from Postmaster Moody’s daughter in Victoria. Very few additional copies have surfaced since the original discoveries. Perhaps the most unusual find came in an announcement in the philatelic press in 2008 that two stamps, one 5-cent and one 10-cent, which had quietly been sitting in a reference collection of fakes and forgeries of one of the country’s largest stamp dealers for decades had now been declared authentic. That large stamp dealer was H. E. Harris & Company, of Boston, perhaps the best-known in the nation. Begun in the 1920s by Henry Ellis Harris, the firm became a major force in philately during the Great Depression as a supplier to The Ivory Stamp Club

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection of the Air, a popular radio show. Harris agreed to send a stamp album, a club badge, and some stamps to anyone who sent in Ivory Soap wrappers, and by the demise of the show in 1936, the club had well over two million members. Many of these collectors remained customers of the Harris firm. The Harris Company also bought stamp collections, and its advertisements over several decades no doubt led to the purchase of thousands of collections and accumulations sent in from all over the country. As these shipments arrived, a Harris employee would sort them into the regular stock for future sale. Anything thought to be a fake or forgery, or just questionable, went into a separate “reference” collection. This reference collection was later purchased intact by Carl Kane, a prominent veteran collector who specialized in the challenging area of fakes and forgeries. Some years later, Kane sold a portion of the lot, including the Confederate items, to Glen LaFontaine, whom he had mentored in this field. At the time, Kane apparently thought the two Victoria stamps were fakes. The new owner, LaFontaine, began to think they were authentic after seeing color pictures of genuine Victoria stamps in the 2007 Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers, and in the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries catalog of the Charles Kilbourne collection of Confederate postmasters’ provisionals. Convinced that they were real, he contacted Patricia Kaufmann, a leading dealer in Confederate material, who assisted him in obtaining certificates declaring the two stamps genuine from the Confederate Stamp Alliance Authentification Service. Kaufmann then offered the stamps on her Web site, eventually selling the pair for $40,000 to Rex H. “Rick” Felton, a well-known Confederate specialist. In November 2011, Felton’s collection was sold through the Robert A. Siegel firm in New York. Offered as separate lots, the two stamps sold for identical realizations of $13,225, or a total of $26,450 for the pair. A modern souvenir “reprint” of the Victoria stamp does exist, printed by the Victoria Advocate newspaper in 1947. It is a small sheet of ten stamps with information about their use during Civil War days.

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The Printed Texas Stamps

4.3. A “reprint” of the Victoria stamp, printed as a souvenir in this form in 1947 by the Victoria Advocate newspaper. From the collection of Peter Powell. Reprinted by permission of the owner.

FIGURE

So little is known about these Victoria stamps (as well as the other Texas locals) that the words of August Dietz from his January 1936 article about the Victoria locals in his publication Stamp and Cover Collecting are still worth pondering today. Dietz, the best-known early Confederate researcher, was lamenting the extremely meager knowledge we have about these items:

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection There were no stamp collectors in the South during the war years. Postmasters kept no record of such trivial incidents as the providing of a temporary substitute for stamps . . . Time passed, and in the increasing seriousness of conditions men gave no thought to stamps . . . Why would we expect these small-town postmasters to recall the details of an incident that left no lasting impression? It is a matter of fact that several of these wartime postmasters even hesitated to discuss the subject with strangers who questioned them—fearing that their connection with the government of the Confederacy would call down upon them the wrath and persecution of the Federal authorities. And I have come to think that, actuated by these same fears, small remaining stocks of [locals] were destroyed. This is the only answer I have found when unsuccessfully seeking to learn what became of these stamps. G O L I AD

Goliad’s John A. Clarke is one of the most colorful of all the Texas postmasters who created local stamps for their postal patrons during the Civil War years. He was born in 1828 in Augusta, Georgia, and came to Goliad in 1854, where he settled and married Louise Talley, the daughter of John Talley, who was listed in the 1860 census as a mail contractor. John and Louise were living with her father in 1860, and his occupation was shown as a druggist on the census records. (In 1870, census papers show Clarke as a doctor, and in 1880, after he had moved to Rockport, he was listed as a physician.) Clarke the druggist also had an entrepreneurial streak, for shortly before the war he was advertising his “Clarke’s Texian Liniment” in the Goliad Messenger newspaper. His concoction was “the remedy,” he claimed, for cattlemen and teamsters wanting to keep their stock free of “Screw-worms, Tics [sic], Bed-Bugs, sore backs, saddle scratches, mange, sprains, spavin,” etc. Clarke apparently had a poetic streak in him as well, for one newspaper ad offered the following as testimony to the powers of Clarke’s Texian Liniment:

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The Printed Texas Stamps War Declared CLARKE’S TEXIAN LINIMENT

The Sun of morn was rising fast, As from a Texian Village past A youth who’d drive through heat or ice An ambulanche with this device— Clarke’s Texian Liniment! A Brindle Bull was prancing round, With iron hoofs he pawed the ground, While gnawing Screw Worms taunt their prey With roar and moan he seemed to say— Clarke’s Texian Liniment! A farmer coming near espied The Bull in rage; though doubting, tried The remedy above them all, To make the Worms all twist and fall— Clarke’s Texian Liniment! The remedy applied, and sure The worms fall dead, the wound will cure; Quite at a distance Blow Flies stay, With startling buzz they seem to say— Clarke’s Texian Liniment! For Bruises, Burns, and Ulcers, too, Sore Backs and Saddle Galls \’twill do; In Spavin it is said to vie, So, get one bottle and just try— Clarke’s Texian Liniment!

The ad also contained a long list of stores in South and Central Texas that carried his compound, and it is worth noting that it could be purchased from Colman and Law in Gonzales and S. G. Daily in Helena, both establishments with links, or in the case of Daily possible links, to other Texas Confederate locals. After the war ended, Clarke had to apply for a special presidential pardon to regain his United States citizenship. Southern postmasters, as officeholders in the Confederate government, were in-

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection eligible for the usual oath of amnesty offered to soldiers who had surrendered, and had to apply for the presidential pardon. In his application, Clarke admitted he had been a “zealous supporter” of the Confederate cause, but now considered the questions of Negro slavery and secession to be “dead” and “fully disposed of.” He declared his desire to become a faithful and obedient citizen of the United States again. Postmaster Clarke had his stamps printed at the local Goliad Messenger newspaper and printing office. A Methodist minister, Rev. A. F. Cox, the newspaper owner, set the type and did the printing, according to August Dietz’s 1929 book, The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America. (Dietz shows the minister’s initials as A. M., but the newspaper masthead at the time listed A. F. Cox as editor and R. W. Peirce as publisher.) There are two different designs of these locals, and each has both a 5-cent and a 10-cent stamp (see photo gallery). The first design, Type I, has a simple printer’s border enclosing the words “Goliad” and “Postage.” The second design, Type II, includes the words “J. A. Clarke” and “Post Master.” Students today think the Type I stamps were printed in the 1861–1862 period when there was an actual need for both a 5-cent and a 10-cent stamp because of different postage rates. The only example of a Type I stamp that can be dated is a 5-cent stamp on the front of an envelope that has a pencil notation of “June 21, 1862.” The Type II stamps, with Clarke’s name and title added, are thought to be from the 1863–1864 period. The 5-cent postage rate for short-distance mail was raised to 10 cents on July 1, 1862. The earliest dated Type II stamp was mailed on October 23, 1863. Three other dated stamps are all on letters sent in August 1864. Clarke signed all of the stamps in either red or black ink to cancel them when they were used. Poor proofreading on the part of Reverend Cox led to a spelling error of “GOILAD” appearing on some examples of both the 5-cent and 10-cent stamps of Type II. The widespread paper shortage in the South and Texas during the war also led to a large number of different stamps, as several different colors of paper were used in the printing. The shortage also resulted in

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The Printed Texas Stamps a sharp decrease in the number of newspapers, their frequency of issue, and their size. The prewar Goliad Messenger was usually four large pages, with many merchant ads and notices, but in 1864 a typical issue was printed on both sides of two very small sheets of paper. As early as 1903, diligent collectors had identified a total of eleven varieties of the Goliad stamps, counting all the different paper colors and the spelling errors. And in 1999 an additional variety was discovered by Scott Trepel, a leading philatelic researcher and president of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York. While preparing the catalog for the sale of the Charles Kilbourne collection of Confederate provisionals, Trepel found a 10-cent Type II stamp on gray paper with ornamental printing on the back of the stamp, “obviously an adversity use of paper and a heretofore unrecognized variety of the Goliad provisional.” It should be mentioned here that the existence in the reference collection of the Philatelic Foundation in New York of a photocopy of a 5-cent Helena, Texas, local with the same ornamental printing on the back confirmed that the Helena stamps were also printed by Cox in Goliad, a theory long held by Confederate collectors. Dietz also told the story in his Postal Service book about San Antonio collector Fred Green’s visit to Goliad. Green reported to Dietz that “the old newspaper and printing shop is still doing business today. They have the border that went around the Goliad Local.” Green acquired several sections of the border for Dietz, who was also a printer, and a section was actually printed in his Postal Service book, almost sixty-five years after it was used in the original stamp printing job. Some prominent early collectors wrote Clarke in the postwar years seeking more information about these stamps, but his answers gave no help. In July 1873, in the first mention of the Goliad locals in any journal, the editor of The Stamp Collector’s Magazine wrote that “efforts to obtain further information through the postmaster have failed, because, as it is asserted, Mr. Clarke was so much mixed up in the rebellion that he does not care about being ‘drawn out’ on any subject connected with it.”

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Dietz quoted a letter from Clarke, a reply to an inquiry from the prominent early collector Hiram Deats, in a July 1935 article in Stamp and Cover Collecting: Rockport, Texas, July 27, 1880 Dear Sir [to Deats]: I have received many letters in regard to the old stamps issued at Goliad in 1862 by the Postmaster then acting, but as I feared there was, or might be, a disposition on the part of some government official to put that individual to some trouble on account of them, I have never given anyone even an answer to their letters touching the matter. Yours, (signed) Jno. A. Clarke

This showed, Dietz thought, “evidence of fear that publicity may bring upon him some dire visitation at the hands of the Federal Government.” In 1893 Albert Steves of San Antonio sent a similar inquiry. Clarke responded to Steves, who sent the answer to be printed in the October 1893 issue of the Philatelic Journal of America: Rockport, Texas, May 15, 1893 Mr. Albert Steves Dear Sir, Yours received this morning. In answer I would state that I am the man that issued the local stamps at Goliad in 1861. They are now worth one hundred dollars each—but unfortunately for me I can find none of them after having tried to do so for years. I have heard of but two or three in existence, one in London, England, and others about New York. Stamp hunters have taken great interest in them and I have had letters of inquiry for them from many sections of the Union. Yours truly, (signed) Dr. Jno. A. Clarke

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The Printed Texas Stamps One can only wonder if Clarke realized the considerable irony in his reply to Steves talking of the many stamp hunters, for Steves was himself the greatest Goliad stamp hunter of them all, and had a good number of them in his own collection at the time. In fact, an article in the September 1893 issue of the Philatelic Journal of America listed no fewer than seven different Goliad varieties that were presently owned by Steves. A later letter, in 1931, from Steves to dealer and writer Charles J. Phillips recounted the Goliad acquisitions. Steves said he got the first three around 1890 from Miss Ida Leage of Rockport, another later on from Mr. Walter A. Rummel, and two more in a bunch of papers about the same time as the first group. Steves also noted in this letter that all were sold to the New England Stamp Co. about 1911 or 1912. Still, his connections and reputation in this field kept stamps coming to him, and in 1931 he still owned two Goliads, one on an envelope bearing only one of a pair of 5-cent Type II stamps, previously owned by Ferrary, and the other a 10-cent Type II stamp on dark blue that was bought from a San Antonio collector who acquired it in 1930 in Victoria (this example is shown in the photo gallery). Additional discoveries of Goliad stamps have been made as recently as 1988, when the author purchased a very fine 10-cent Type II stamp from a South Texas family that had owned it for years. This stamp was on an envelope addressed to Mrs. Susan Moody of Victoria, the wife of Victoria postmaster James A. Moody. Undoubtedly the greatest of all of the Goliad items created by printer Cox and Postmaster Clarke, and preserved for these years by the great philatelists Ferrary, Caspary, and Lilly is the unique pair of the 5-cent Type II stamps with one being the “GOILAD” spelling error (plate 2, photo gallery). This beautiful, lightly canceled pair is one of the most famous of all Confederate locals, and is always mentioned in stories about the philatelic gems of the world. One final comment on the Goliad story concerns a possible reprint of them in the 1950s. An article by David Kent about Con-

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection federate fakes and reprints in the February 12, 1955, Weekly Philatelic Gossip stated that woodcut and private printings were “made from the Goliad Texas typesettings.” While a few counterfeits do occasionally show up in the philatelic world, there is no other mention of reprints of Goliad stamps in the literature of Confederate philately, and none have come to light in the marketplace. H E L E NA

Today, Helena is not much more than a ghost town, located in present-day Karnes County a few miles northeast of Karnes City. For many years after its beginning in 1853, it was a lively and turbulent town, one of the most significant settlements between San Antonio, Goliad, and the ports of coastal Texas such as Indianola. At its peak, Helena boasted a courthouse, many business establishments, several churches, a Masonic lodge, a school, and two hotels. During the Civil War it was an important stop on the road used to move Texas cotton across the border to the Mexican town of Matamoros; from there it was sent to the nearby port of Bagdad for shipment abroad. Some Texas postal history sources identify the first Confederate postmaster of Helena as Charles W. Dailey. Karnes County local history sources, however, say that the office was held by David W. Dailey, and it does seem that this is correct. He was from a large family of Daileys who came to Texas from Georgia about 1853. The 1860 census shows the family with eleven children, most living in San Marcos at the time (and none named Charles). David and his brothers Stephen and Thomas, though, were listed as residents of Helena. The Helena locals were discovered quite early, with their first mention coming in Edward L. Pemberton’s The Stamp Collector’s Handbook, published in London in 1874. Pemberton told first of the Goliad stamps and then of a 5-cent Helena with a “design exactly like Goliad, but name changed to Helena, and name of postmaster omitted at sides.” The Helena was identified as a black stamp printed on buff-colored paper. Much later, in the 1930s, San Antonio’s Albert Steves told researcher Charles J. Phillips his story about having a 5-cent Hel-

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The Printed Texas Stamps ena in the early 1870s but, not knowing what it was, trading it to a local young boy. Steves, who was a young boy himself at the time, remembered it was a damaged stamp, with a cut into the top border. It was thought from the first that the Helena stamps were printed by Reverend Cox at his printing business in nearby Goliad, which is where Helena residents had to go for mail before the time of the Helena post office. And while it seemed a certainty because of the similar design, it was not confirmed until 1999, when New York dealer and auctioneer Scott Trepel told of his discovery that the same ornamental design existed on the back of some of both the Goliad and the Helena locals, thus proving they came from the same printer, who was doubtlessly using leftover paper from previous jobs because of the wartime paper shortage. There are today only three examples of the 5-cent and two of the 10-cent Helena stamps known. The designs are quite similar, though different typefaces are used for the words “Helena” and “Postage” in the two denominations, and the side borders of the 10-cent stamp contain one more design element than those of the 5-cent, making it slightly taller. At least three of these were found early on, as the Ferrary collection contained one 5-cent and two 10-cent stamps. Four were known by 1956, and were in the Caspary collection, sold at auction that year by the H. R. Harmer firm in New York. The sale catalog described Caspary’s holding of all known Helena stamps (at that time) in a somewhat subtle manner. A rather simple introduction preceded the descriptions, noting: “The following 4 lots comprise all the ‘Helena’ copies known.” Then each of the stamps was offered individually. The description for the first 5-cent stamp proclaimed: “Only one other exists, offered in the following lot.” Then, for the second 5-cent stamp, Harmer’s describers wrote: “Only one other exists, offered in the preceding lot.” The descriptions of the two 10-cent stamps carried similar wording. That event, the dispersal of four of the five known Helena locals, was an astounding moment in Texas postal history. It is not likely that four of the Helena stamps will again wind up in the same collection or be sold on the same day.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection L AVAC A

Another astounding moment in that 1956 Caspary auction came when the only known copy of the Port Lavaca local was sold, shortly after the Helena group. It is perhaps the most mysterious of all the Texas locals because so little is known about it. That 1956 event was the first—and only—time it has been offered for public sale. It was exhibited once before 1956, when Caspary, the publicity-shy owner, allowed it to be on display at the 1947 international stamp show in New York. Confederate expert August Dietz first told the philatelic world about this stamp in 1935, in an article in his Stamp and Cover Collecting journal. And this article was about the “find,” not of the stamp itself but of a photograph of the stamp. This photo came to Dietz courtesy of Hiram A. Deats, of Flemington, New Jersey, who was a prominent and respected collector of Confederate stamps back in the 1890s. Deats was one of those diligent types who placed newspaper ads in the South at the time offering large sums for old Confederate stamps and letters. “Innumerable rarities now gracing the great collections in this country and abroad,” wrote Dietz in 1935, “trace back to this early source” of ads run by Deats in the 1890s. A small lot of old Confederate stamps and letters came in to Deats one day, and he, thinking them to be of a routine sort, set them aside for later study. A second perusal of the group, however, brought forth this Port Lavaca local on an envelope addressed to Miss Puss Cliett in Prairie Lea, a Caldwell County town. All the envelopes in the lot had this same address, but the others, of different dates, bore the normal Confederate stamps. Years later, Deats recalled selling the stamp through a dealer at a high price, and he also recalled taking a photo of it, which surfaced around 1935 and was passed on to Dietz. The 1935 article could only show the photo; it could not provide answers for the many questions about the stamp. It is a simple stamp, bearing only the words “10 Cents,” “Postage,” and “Lavaca,” all below a cut of a typical Mississippi River steamboat.

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The Printed Texas Stamps The town was originally called Lavaca when it was established in 1841–1842, and it became an important port on the Texas coast before and during the Civil War. When a post office was first established in 1846 by the United States Post Office Department, it was named Port Lavaca. During the war, Confederate postal authorities dropped the word “Port,” but it was added again after the war. Lavaca’s wartime postmaster was Charles W. Ogsbury, who was a soldier in the Republic of Texas army in 1835–1836, and again in 1840 during the Battle of Plum Creek. Ogsbury also served as a major in 1862 in the Calhoun County Battalion of the Texas State Troops. There is no year date on the stamp or envelope, but it was probably issued in 1863 or 1864 when the postage rate was 10 cents. The steamboat illustration likely was a typical sample cut available to printers at the time, meant for use on a letterhead or advertisement. The addressee, Miss Puss Cliett, was probably the daughter of Thomas Cliett, a Methodist minister who moved his family to Caldwell County from Mississippi. Prairie Lea is the county’s oldest community and was a thriving town in the 1860s. Cliett had two daughters, Josephine, born in 1846, and Mary Edilda, born earlier. Josephine would have been seventeen or eighteen in 1863 or 1864, and thus likely to be the recipient of this letter, addressed to “Puss” as a term of endearment rather than her proper name. Josephine married Simon Hager in 1868, a veteran of Company H, Fifth Texas Cavalry Regiment; records are unclear about whether he served in Port Lavaca during the war, so we can only speculate whether he was the author of this now well-known letter in the stamp world. One sad note, though, is that Josephine died in 1869, probably in childbirth, for Simon and a child were recorded in the 1870 census as living with the older sister, Mary, and her husband at the time. The Lavaca local sold for $1,300 in that 1956 Caspary auction. It would likely bring a much higher price if sold at auction today, probably upwards of $35,000.

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THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

CHAPTER

The “Cut and Paste” Texas Stamps

5

P O S TAG E

FOUR OF THE TEXAS LOCALS ARE STAMPS OF THE “CUT

and paste” variety, sometimes called “cut-outs” or “cut to shape” stamps. Simply put, they were tiny pieces of paper that were cut apart with scissors and affixed to an envelope with glue or some such substance from a paste pot in the post office. These bits of paper carried a marking indicating the amount of postage paid, and, in three of these four instances, the name of the post office. Perhaps this was not as much trouble as it might seem, considering that the regular Confederate stamps, when available, had no perforations and had to be separated with scissors, and no doubt a few, manufactured with a poor quality of gum, needed a bit of help from the post office paste pot to remain securely attached to the envelopes to which they were applied. But still, we are left to ponder the same question for all of these “cut and paste” postmasters: why did they go to this much trouble to mark an envelope paid when they could have simply written (or stamped with a postmark device) their post office name and date and added the words “paid” and “5” or “10” and nothing more. Maybe they had enough requests for “stamps” to be sold and then applied to mail later; maybe they wanted to be able to sell several stamps at a time to avoid either bookkeeping or change-making problems during a period when coinage was almost nonexistent; or maybe they just thought a postmaster should have some kind of stamps to go on letters entering the mail stream from his post office.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Whatever the reason, none of these postmasters are available for a response, so all we can do is give them a belated “thank you” for creating these Texas philatelic rarities for today’s collectors to desire. The four post offices where such stamps originated are Plum Creek, Independence, Hallettsville, and Austin. P LU M C RE E K

One of the smallest of the post offices that produced these Texas postmasters’ stamps was the settlement of Plum Creek, located at the southern tip of Caldwell County. In the 1860 federal census, approximately 2,870 white citizens were tallied in this county, and only 240 of them were listed as being served by the Plum Creek post office. It was established in 1848, and William R. Johnston became postmaster in 1854, a position he held until 1866. Johnston, originally from Spartanburg, South Carolina, came to Texas about 1851. He was listed in the 1860 census as a thirty-six-yearold merchant, with the highest estate value of any Plum Creek resident, thus likely making him one of the most influential members of the community, and the post office was almost certainly a part of his store. In 1874 the Plum Creek post office was discontinued, with postal records indicating the name was changed to Luling. Texas post office researcher John Germann’s map of Caldwell County post offices shows the Plum Creek office a few miles from present-day Luling, and he suggests that the office simply moved to be on the railroad (ultimately an intersection of the Southern Pacific Railroad and the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad) and adopted the name of Luling. A delightful essay on the early days of Luling in Do You Remember? Early Days in Luling, Texas, by Anne C. Huff Bridges, recalls that Johnston’s store was topped by Hardeman Lodge, a Masonic lodge. The store “was a lively place on a Saturday . . . Mr. William R. Johnston (Bill) carried a line of staple and fancy dry goods, hardware and groceries, including barrels (with spigots) of molasses, vinegar, and whiskey; which was sold by the quart,

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The “Cut and Paste” Texas Stamps gallon, five gallons or more, but a drink was free. It was a great joke to shift the vinegar and whiskey barrels, and hang the tin cup on the wrong barrel. No members ever told his fellow members of the exchange.” In the 1880 census, Johnston was enumerated as a banker living in Luling. Only two Plum Creek locals are known today, and each is just a tiny piece of bluish ruled ledger paper, one cut into a diamond shape and the other into a rectangle, both less than half the size of a normal postage stamp, and each with only a manuscript “10” to denote the amount of postage paid. There is also a manuscript town postmark on both of these envelopes, one being “Plum Creek, Tx” and “July 9” and the other “Plum Creek” and “July 16/64.” This second example has an 1864 year date, and the other was most likely used in 1864 also, as the handwriting is similar and only a week separates the two envelopes. The example with the 1864 date was the first to make an appearance in the philatelic world; it is affixed to a small homemade envelope addressed to Mrs. Cordelia Harwood in Gonzales, Texas. It first showed up in the 1956 H. R. Harmer auction of the legendary Alfred H. Caspary collection, where it was described as a “small diamond shaped adhesive stamp . . . on a very small, neat homemade manila envelope.” Also mentioned was the fact that the stamp was not listed in either the Scott or the Dietz catalog, and was probably unique. The piece sold for a modest $220 in this initial showing, a price probably held down because of uncertainty about whether it would eventually be recognized as a legitimately issued adhesive stamp. A few years later, in 1962, it was sold at auction again by H. R. Harmer as a part of the Alexander S. Kirkman collection. This time it was noted that in April 1956 (a month after the Caspary sale), the Philatelic Foundation “respectfully declined to give an opinion on the item.” This uncertainty again resulted in a very low realization, just $150. More than twenty years later, though, a different opinion from the Philatelic Foundation made a huge difference in the marketplace’s evaluation of this item. This same envelope was offered in the Robert A. Siegel firm’s 1985 “Rari-

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection ties of the World” sale, this time with a Philatelic Foundation opinion declaring it genuine. (Perhaps the change of heart by the foundation was the result of more research, or possibly of the discovery of the second example about this time. The exact reason is not known.) In this 1985 sale, with an enhanced description of it as a “homemade wallpaper cover (fanciful design of women in long dress partially covered in flowers and stems, etc),” it sold for $9,000. The second Plum Creek local emerged sometime in the 1960s, almost certainly discovered by Fred Green, the veteran San Antonio collector. It is on a small and faulty envelope addressed to a soldier in Colonel Woods’s Regiment at Corpus Christi, Texas. It was first offered for sale publicly in the John W. Kaufmann firm’s sale of the Beverly Hills collection in 1986. (This collection was owned by Bruce P. McNall, a nationally known coin dealer and professional sports entrepreneur. He once owned the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team, and bought Wayne Gretsky, the ice hockey superstar, from the Edmonton Oilers. His financial empire crumbled later and he wound up in prison.) I N DE P E N D E N C E

Another of the “cut and paste” Texas locals came from the scissors of Postmaster John McKnight of the town of Independence in Washington County, about twelve miles northeast of Brenham. It is an old town, founded in 1835, and was thought to be the wealthiest town in Texas in the mid-1840s. Independence was a prominent town in the educational and religious life of early Texas. A boarding school for girls was founded in 1835, and in 1846 Texas Baptists, seeking a home for a new university, chose it over several other towns as the home of Baylor University. The town prospered through the 1850s and early 1860s, and became a center for the area’s commercial activities. After the Civil War, the town and Baylor officials refused to provide land for the Santa Fe Railroad, resulting in railroad service going to other towns nearby. The increasing transportation difficulties

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The “Cut and Paste” Texas Stamps for Baylor students led university officials to move the school to Waco (the Baylor Female College, then a separate institution, was moved to Belton, and is now the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor). The town began declining immediately after being bypassed by the railroad and losing Baylor University, and that trend has continued to this day. It is now a tiny country settlement with a population of about 140. Postmaster McKnight was born in Virginia in 1806 and moved to Texas in 1840. He was a prominent planter, merchant, and druggist in Independence for many years, and was a close friend of Sam Houston. McKnight was also one of the founders of Baylor University and built and donated the first building to the school. The 1860 census lists his occupation as druggist, and he is shown as the owner of real property valued at $25,000 and personal property valued at $20,000 (much of this value is likely attributable to the eight slaves he owned), both considerable numbers at the time. McKnight served as postmaster for only a little over three years, taking office on January 19, 1863, during the war, and holding the position until April 20, 1866. A total of five of his “cut and paste” stamps are known to collectors today. The first was discovered in 1899 among the papers of T. W. House, the prominent banker in Houston. (This discovery was chronicled earlier in chapter 2.) News of this find was publicized widely in philatelic journals of the day, where it was reported to have been sold to the wealthy Paris collector Ferrary for $1,000. A few years later, in 1903, many of these same philatelic journals reprinted a curious and undated story from the Austin Statesman newspaper about the Independence stamp. The anonymous article concerns not the actual stamp, but rather a “cut” or photograph of the envelope and stamp. This photograph was owned by Austin collector Captain Henry G. Askew, who told the scribe about that reported price of $1,000. Askew, born in 1845, was involved in Texas banking, railroad, and land affairs, and was the first auditor of the Texas Railroad Commission, from 1891 to

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection 1906. He served in the Texas State Troops in 1863–1864. He was also an early member of the Texas Philatelic Association; his papers are held in the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. The article is somewhat puzzling to today’s student, since the writer claims “some personal recollection of the time, place, and circumstances under which [the stamp] was made” and recalls some details that probably did happen and others that did not. He recounts the frustration that McKnight and other Confederate postmasters experienced in trying to keep a regular supply of stamps on hand, and notes that they had been authorized by Confederate postal officials to simply write “postage paid” on envelopes when stamps were not available: Mr McKnight was out of stamps so often that he concluded as a means of facilitating the work and obviating the necessity of writing these words to whittle out, or, rather, to carve the die of a 10-cent stamp. Being a mechanic, this he accomplished very successfully, using a penknife and a piece of oak wood. The impression was made on common brown wrapping paper with home-made ink. These impressions were cut in shapes nearly square and pasted on envelopes with gum arabic dissolved in water. The post-office records at Independence having been destroyed by fire some years after the Civil War, just how many of these crude stamps were made and used will never be positively known . . . The entire envelope [sent to T. W. House] has been preserved, of course, including postmark and stamp. The words “Southern Confederacy” are rudely carved in a circle, in the center of which is “Ten cents,” also made with an ordinary pocketknife.

Much of this description is very likely an accurate representation of why and how McKnight came to produce these stamps. But that last bit about the “Southern Confederacy” is obviously incorrect. Photographs from the original find as well as from auction catalogs over the years show no such wording.

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The “Cut and Paste” Texas Stamps One possible explanation for this article is that it was written by (or for) Askew as an attempt to flush out more of these stamps from family letters and correspondences held by the newspaper’s readers. In fact, the piece ends with an opinion that the stamp was at the time probably worth $2,500 or $3,000 “in view of the fact that stamp collectors are growing daily more enthusiastic.” For some years after the 1899 discovery of the HouseDorchester stamp, it was the only known copy. Four other examples are known today, all from the same correspondence. According to notes on the back of photos of these covers in the research files of the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, these were discovered around 1919 by August H. Schumacher of Houston, a wellknown collector at the time. The first mention of them in any published philatelic literature appeared in the November 1933 auction catalog for the sale of the great Arthur Hind collection by New York dealer Charles J. Phillips. Hind owned the HouseDorchester discovery copy, which he had acquired in the Ferrary dispersal auction in France in 1922. This stamp is listed in the Hind catalog with Phillips’s cryptic comment “only 4 or 5 others known.” Phillips must have been referring to the four additional copies now recorded. He was a noted student and researcher as well as a dealer, and he later listed three of these in a series of articles he wrote on Confederate postmasters’ stamps for Stamps magazine in 1933–1938. (These articles were later compiled and published in 1980 in Surveys of the Confederate Postmasters’ Provisionals, by Francis J. Crown, Jr.) All four of these stamps are on separate envelopes addressed to Captain T. L. Scott of Terry’s Texas Rangers, officially known as the Eighth Texas Cavalry Regiment, the most famous of all the Texas cavalry regiments in the Confederate Army. Two of the envelopes were sent from Independence to Scott at Shreveport, Louisiana, one is addressed to him at Houston, and the last was mailed to him at Sandy Point, Brazoria County, Texas. Three of the four envelopes bear a stamp cut in the round shape by McKnight’s scissors, and the fourth has been cut in a square shape.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection There are two distinctly different types of the Independence stamps. The House-Dorchester stamp has a large “10” in the center of the circular marking. All four stamps from the Scott find have a much smaller “10.” Three of these also have a manuscript “Pd” and one has no manuscript marking. (It is possible that this last example also originally received a manuscript “Pd” that has simply faded away over the years.) H AL L E T T S VI L L E

Another small Texas town from which a “cut and paste” local exists is Hallettsville, the county seat of Lavaca County. It is an old town, founded in 1838, when Margaret L. Hallett donated land for the town site. The current population is slightly more than 2,000, and it probably had no more than a few hundred inhabitants in the 1860s. The postmaster who created this stamp was Thomas Notgrass, who joined a group of Hallettsville men in enlisting in the Confederate Army, serving in what became known as Company “D” of the Twenty-seventh Texas Cavalry Regiment under Captain John W. Whitfield. Notgrass entered the service on August 24, 1861, and by October 1862 he had been wounded, later captured by Union forces, and finally paroled. The wound was apparently a shot to the hip that troubled him for years, as the 1880 census shows him with a broken hip due to a gunshot wound. He returned to Hallettsville after being paroled, and on January 2, 1863, at about twenty-four years of age, became the postmaster, an office he held until December 22, 1864. The only known Hallettsville local was affixed to a folded letter sent on August 21, 1863, to Stephen Crosby, the commissioner of the General Land Office in Austin. The stamp was made by substituting the words “Paid 10” in place of the date in a typical round town postmarking device (the wording “Paid 10” was inverted). This single existing stamp was hand-stamped in black on gray-blue ruled paper, then cut to the round shape and pasted on the letter.

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The “Cut and Paste” Texas Stamps There are no accounts telling us when or by whom this stamp was discovered. It was illustrated in August Dietz’s Postal Service of the Confederate States of America in 1929, described there as a woodcut printed on gray-blue paper. Dietz also noted: “I have never seen this Local or learned ought of its history. The illustration is copied from the Scott Catalog.” Curiously, this stamp, despite its Scott Catalogue listing, does not appear in either the 1930s articles on Confederate postmasters’ provisionals by Charles J. Phillips or Dietz’s own 1945 Confederate States Catalog and Handbook. The next public mention of this local in the philatelic world came in 1956, when it was sold in the New York auction of the Alfred H. Caspary collection. The sale publication described the stamp as the one “from which the catalog listing was made.” At the time of the auction, the stamp had not been authenticated by the Philatelic Foundation. Later in 1956, it was certified as “genuine” but not without controversy. The rare-stamp chronicler L. N. Williams noted in his “The World of Unique Stamps” that when this stamp was first submitted for authentication, it was declared a forgery. Then he went on to say: “However, other counsels prevailed and the committee’s opinion was reversed.” Without a Philatelic Foundation certificate, the stamp sold in the 1956 sale for $800. A few years later, in 1962, it again changed hands at public auction in the Alexander Kirkman sale, and with a certificate declaring it genuine, it brought $1,800. AU S T I N

The Austin post office also produced some “cut and paste” locals, and four examples are known today. The postmaster then was William Rust, who served from March 17, 1857, to June 23, 1865. Rust was listed in the 1860 census as sixty-six years of age and a substantial property owner, with $5,000 in real property and $21,750 in personal property, composed primarily of twenty-one slaves. That census also shows R. S. Rust, twenty-five years old and presumably William’s son, as assistant postmaster.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection The Austin stamps were made by replacing the date logos from the center of a typical double circle postmark device with the words “Paid 10.” The stamps were then struck on faintly ruled sheets of paper and cut apart in a square format. Examples are known on both white and orange or buff-colored paper. The discovery of these Austin locals was first announced in the July 1939 issue of the Texas Philatelist. Editor T. E. Flick of Galveston illustrated an envelope addressed to a doctor in Hempstead that bore one of these stamps. “During the past few years,” wrote Flick, “three or four copies of the adhesive stamps have been found and at least three of these I am able to record here of which one is also illustrated.” In addition to the one being mailed to Hempstead, Flick told of one sent to H. M. Alford in Little Rock, Arkansas, and another addressed to Clerk County Court, Bexar County, Texas, in San Antonio. Flick’s article was reprinted in the October 1939 issue of Stamp and Cover Collectors’ Review, a monthly journal edited and published by August Dietz, the veteran student of Confederate philately. Dietz added some comments of his own, explaining that he had asked Flick for more information on this find after reading about it. Flick sent the actual envelope he had illustrated for Dietz’s inspection, along with photostatic copies of the others mentioned in his article. Flick noted that two of the stamps came to the notice of philatelists through Mr. Green (probably Fred Green, the well-known collector in San Antonio, discussed in chapter 2), and “were found by a man who worked in the Bexar County Court House [in San Antonio].” Another stamp was found in Austin by a Mr. Gammel. The envelope with the stamp sent to Mr. Alford in Little Rock was purchased along with the family correspondence from Alford’s daughter, who lived in Austin for many years. The collector who found the stamp told Flick that Alford was a member of Captain Rhodes Fisher’s Company G, Sixth Texas Infantry Regiment in the Confederate Army, and the correspondence he bought contained letters to and from Alford and his wife. The information provided by Flick convinced Dietz that these

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The “Cut and Paste” Texas Stamps stamps were indeed authentic: “The results would seem to be conclusive—establishing this newcomer to a place in our Catalog.” These Austin locals were apparently made and used in mid- to late 1862. One of them is addressed to a Mr. Matthews in San Antonio with a postmark of August 23, 1862, and another, sent to Alford in Arkansas, has a note on the back that it was received on September 25, 1862. The dates on the other two are illegible, but it seems likely that they were also used at about this time.

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CHAPTER

The “Book and Pill Label” Stamps of Gonzales

6

P O S TAG E

T H E AWA R D F O R T H E T E X A S C O N F E D E R AT E LO C A L

most unlike a stamp easily goes to the small labels forced into action as postage stamps by Postmaster John V. Law of Gonzales. Law was born in England about 1820 and came to Gonzales sometime before 1850. He was a partner in the firm of Colman and Law, booksellers and druggists, in Gonzales. He was also the local postmaster, serving from 1853 through October 1865. Law’s post office during the war was located in his store. Confederate expert August Dietz explained how the labels became stamps in his Stamp and Cover Collecting journal issue of October 1935: the Colman and Law “firm—as is the custom even today—had a supply of small lithographed firm labels which were pasted on the front or back of the inside covers of the books they sold, and probably, too, on the pill boxes and bottles of physics put up in their apothecary. These small labels . . . were pressed into service as provisional postage stamps . . . in 1861.” The tiny labels, which merely proclaimed “Colman & Law Booksellers and Druggists Gonzalez, Texas,” were first noticed in the philatelic press in 1898 when three letters, each bearing a pair of the labels in payment of 10 cents postage, were illustrated in the February 3 issue of Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News, published by St. Louis dealer Charles Mekeel. The letters were all mailed sometime in 1861 by a Gonzales housewife to her soldier husband, J. F. Miller, serving in Company I of the Eighth Texas

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Cavalry, known as Terry’s Texas Rangers, stationed in Corinth, Mississippi. They were acquired from the Millers by a Louisville, Kentucky, collector who requested and received the following confirmation from Miller, by then a partner in the Banking House of Miller and Sayers in Gonzales: Mrs. Miller desires me to write you in reference to the Colman and Law stamps sent you by her some time since. Messrs. Colman and Law were druggists here and Mr. J. V. Law was postmaster. When the war came on there was no change to pay postage with, as silver disappeared and the Confederate Government did not issue fractional currency. Therefore, so as to enable people to pay postage Mr. Law took the drug labels for postage stamps. By taking a dollar bill, people could take that much of these stamps and use them for post office stamps. They were in use here as postage stamps until the Confederate Government issued a postage stamp. The letters you have were addressed to me and sent through the post office paid by these stamps. Mrs. Law, wife of the postmaster, is still living here, and many others who know of the use of these labels as stamps to prepay postage.

Further investigation into this discovery produced more details a few years later, also printed by Mekeel. The tiny advertising labels were printed in gold on colored glazed paper. The “gold on garnet” labels were sold ten for $1 and used as 10-cent stamps, while the “gold on dark blue” or “gold on black” were sold twenty for $1 to be used as 5-cent stamps. (Some catalogs also show “gold on crimson” labels, which may be a shade of the garnet, or red paper, or color changes due to oxidation.) The 5-cent dark blue labels were sometimes sold with a Gonzales postmark already applied. Then, when they were cut apart and affixed to the envelope, an additional postmark was applied to that envelope. There are five envelopes now known from 1861 with these locals, and four more from 1864–1865. There is also one off-cover “gold on garnet” stamp known, which was in the Ferrary collec-

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The “Book and Pill Label”Stamps of Gonzales tion. Other labels have surfaced over the years that were removed from books sold by the firm, but these do not qualify as postage stamps. The labels must be properly postmarked on the envelope, said Dietz. “Then, and only then, this firm label takes on the dignity of a Confederate local.”

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CHAPTER

The Curious Case of Wharton, Waxahachie, and Other “Wannabe” Texas Postmasters’ Stamps

7

P O S TAG E

JO HN HI L L , T H E DA L L A S C O L L E C TO R MENTIO NED IN

chapter 3, had a marvelous showing of Confederate locals that he exhibited frequently in the 1990s. His group of Texas adhesive stamps was superb, comprising the Large Beaumont, two of the smaller pink Beaumonts, a 10-cent Goliad cover, the unique Hallettsville cut-out, and a San Antonio cut-out. He also had two other items in the group that were a surprise to many Texas and Confederate postal historians; both were identified as newly discovered Texas locals, one from Waxahachie and one from Wharton. And they were quite similar in nature, appearing to be tiny blank gummed labels with a printed blue border to which a postmaster had added the words “PAID” and “10” with a usual handstamp postmark device. There were several elements to this surprise, the first being that these two pieces had not been seen before, not even by those familiar with Hill’s exhibit. (The exhibit was, and is, available in photocopy form from the United States Philatelic Classics Society, and it is possible that these items were added to the collection after its last public display.) Another part of the surprise was the high level of skepticism on the part of many that the stamps were what they were purported to be: genuine Confederate locals. Still another surprise came when observers noticed that both had recently been declared genuine locals by the Philatelic Foundation in New York. In spite of that designation, many collectors still

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection questioned the authenticity of the pair, and thus I will make an effort here to discuss what is known about them. Their initial public appearance in the philatelic world came as a part of the fabulous Ferrary collection. Ferrary died in 1917, and his stamps were sold in a series of auctions by France, which had claimed them as a part of reparations due that county by Germany after World War I. The auctions were done in a largely unprofessional manner, and apparently these two pieces made an unfavorable impression on the philatelists who arranged the sale, as they were simply tossed into a poorly described group lot containing thirty items. Only nine of the thirty were described by town name in the 1922 catalog, including the Wharton (“un timbre colle sur letter,” or one stamp on letter) and the Waxahachir [sic] (“un timbre sur frag,” or one stamp on “fragment” or piece, as it is on the front of an envelope). The thirty items sold at the auction for the equivalent of about $41. The reclusive, mysterious, immensely wealthy Ferrary built what has been recognized as the world’s greatest stamp collection at a time when new Confederate locals were being discovered regularly and were eagerly sought by European philatelists (see chapter 3 for more on Ferrary). He was a prolific purchaser of philatelic discoveries, even including some known forgeries or questionable items. “I would sooner buy one hundred forgeries than miss that variety that I could not find elsewhere,” he is quoted as saying in Bierman’s The World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors. As his fame spread, and the European demand for Confederate locals increased, he came to the attention of one of America’s early philatelic fakers, Dr. James A. Petrie. Petrie had a well-deserved reputation as a producer of fake Confederate locals. He went across the South in the 1870s, placing newspaper ads that offered high prices for old Confederate stamps, frequently illustrating things in the ads that were nonexistent. His “finds” often gave him ideas for counterfeits and fantasy stamps that could be prepared and sold to the gullible. One example of his work came when he discovered a genuine but previously unknown local from Greenville, Alabama. Realizing that this genuine copy could be sold only once, he made several similar

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The Curious Case of “Wannabe” Texas Postmasters' Stamps fakes, and sold a number of them while keeping the original a secret. Years later, his trick was exposed when another genuine stamp surfaced. Petrie went to Europe in the 1880s, buying, selling, and trading with the philatelic community there. He “openly boasted of having sold Ferrary fakes and counterfeits,” Bierman reports. “Petrie,” he says, “was thief, forger, fraud, conniver and contemptuous of his fellow collectors,” a “gentleman of flexible conscience.” Did Petrie sell these pieces to Ferrary? Of course there is no record, but the opportunity certainly existed for a faker like Petrie, who was also a very charming individual, to take advantage of a voracious buyer like Ferrary. Later, these two pieces were in the stock of Boston dealer Warren H. Colson, who placed his telltale initials on both. Colson was “the most important dealer in classic stamps in the United States, if not the world,” according to John R. Boker, Jr., who was one of the preeminent American philatelists of the last half of the twentieth century. Colson did attend the Ferrary sales, but it is not known if he bought this pair there or acquired them later. How long they stayed in his stock and where they went next is unclear. He had many well-known customers in the years from 1900 to 1960 who were building Confederate collections, such as Caspary, Hind, and others whose collections were dispersed in public sales, but none of the auctions included the Wharton and Waxahachie items. Diligent research has found no mention of either piece in any of the early American or European stamp journals that were heralding new discoveries or seeking information about puzzling pieces. The Philatelic Foundation’s certificates for both pieces were issued in November 1994. It is known that the decision to declare them genuine was a split one, with some experts thinking they were real and others calling them fake. Hill presumably mounted them and added them to his collection shortly thereafter. Hill died in 1998, and his collection was sold later that year to dealer Andrew Levitt, of Danbury, Connecticut. In February 1999, Stanley Piller wrote about the pair in an article titled “The Unlisted Provisionals” in Scott Stamp Monthly. They have been

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection “certified as genuine by the Philatelic Foundation and will, probably, eventually, be listed in the Scott Catalog,” Piller noted. Coincidentally, about that time Piller was robbed while carrying the collection after a Florida stamp show on behalf of Levitt, and the two stamps, along with the rest of the Hill collection, have not been seen since. Aside from this past philatelic history, what can be determined from a perusal of the actual items? Any such inspection now must be of the photocopies, since the actual pieces are missing. Both the letter carrying the Wharton label and the envelope “front” (missing the back) bearing the Waxahachie label appear to be authentic, and the postal markings on them, the “PAID” and the “10,” are quite similar to markings used in both towns. It is difficult to draw conclusions from the addressees of both pieces. Hill’s write-up of the Waxahachie label, on the “front” addressed to Clement R. Johns in Austin, notes a “presumed year date” of 1865 because Johns retired from public life and moved to Austin that year. But Hill’s presumption seems most unlikely. The postmark date is January 12, very early in the year, and Johns, according to The Handbook of Texas Online, “retired from public life in 1865, leased his farm to his former slaves,” and then moved to Austin. Slaves did not become “former slaves” in Texas until after the war, so his move to Austin was probably much later in 1865. Johns, who lived on the Blanco River in Hays County, was the elected “State Comptroller” during much of the war, however, and letters do exist that were sent to him in Austin during the war years. The larger envelope, with the Wharton label, was sent to Richmond, Virginia, ostensibly on post office business, according to the notation at the upper left. Hill presumes an 1863 date for this one. An envelope of this size would have required more than 10 cents postage, and Hill’s written explanation that “the 10c rate is presumed to be an underpayment of the full rate that this large cover would have been charged, but rather is the minimum rate for such a letter, with the rest being assumed by post office business” seems curiously unconvincing and unintelligible. And a very disturbing and bothersome thing for many is those

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The Curious Case of “Wannabe” Texas Postmasters' Stamps bright blue labels. No other Confederate locals, either in Texas or across the South, are known on similar labels. The extreme shortage of paper and paper goods in the South during the war makes it unlikely that such labels would have been available at a printing establishment or a stationery store in Texas in the latter stage of the war. In summary, this puzzling pair began their philatelic journey in one of the great collections of the world, placed there by a careless buyer during a period when philatelic fraudsters were rampant and busily creating fakes, especially in the Confederate local field. The two stamps then disappeared from sight almost entirely between the 1922 auction and the 1990s, failing to be listed, mentioned, scrutinized, praised, defended, or written about at all by any major collector or author in journals, books, catalogs, or magazines until the 1999 articles. This absence from visibility in the collecting community would suggest that the owners in those years also had reservations about the items and never brought them forth publicly. Perhaps a discovery of more such pieces, from an unquestionable source, would be what is required to convince those collectors who are still skeptical of these two labels today that they are, in fact, the real thing. SAN AN TO N I O

Another “cut and paste” example is known from San Antonio, affixed to an envelope carrying mail from a soldier in the Second Regiment of Sibley’s Brigade to a family member back in Alleyton, Colorado County, Texas. The envelope has a green San Antonio postmark on the right and a cut-out circular “10 PAID” from a different-color envelope pasted on at the left. It is known that the San Antonio post office did offer and sell stamped envelopes with this “10 PAID” marking applied before the sale, but such envelopes or stationery items are beyond the scope of this book, which is devoted only to the “adhesive” stamps made and sold by Texas postmasters. Both the envelope and the “10 PAID” cut-out affixed to it appear to be genuine. A certificate of authenticity from the Philatelic Foundation says the stamp is

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection

FIGURE

7.1. This Galveston “stamp” is now considered a fake. It first appeared around 1926, and was originally thought to be genuine.

“cut-out from a buff envelope, pasted on this repaired envelope, and apparently accepted as prepayment of postage.” Since it is possible, if not probable, that this was an effort by the soldier or even a postal clerk to “save” or re-use the “10 PAID” from a soiled or damaged envelope, it is not, in the author’s opinion, a true “adhesive” as are the other “cut and paste” locals discussed in chapter 4. G ALVE STO N

Another “wannabe” Texas local is an interesting typeset adhesive from Galveston, first mentioned in the August 1926 issue of the Southern Philatelist. The “stamp” is on an advertising envelope addressed from Galveston to Indianola. The article, by the editor, August Dietz, speaks of the “discovery of a heretofore unknown stamp, which appears to possess every earmark of a Confederate local.” It was said to have been found “in a bundle of war-time letters brought to a gathering of collectors at a State Meet in Galveston, and the entire unpicked lot sold for a nominal sum.” A “thorough investigation of its antecedents is underway by Texas philatelists.”

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The Curious Case of “Wannabe” Texas Postmasters' Stamps Dietz also listed this in his 1929 The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America, announcing that it was found by Fred Green and was “now part of a famous collection in Utica.” (This would be the Arthur Hind collection.) A second copy of the stamp on cover is said to exist, Dietz mentioned. The stamp was later declared a fake and removed from the Dietz catalogs except for a mention in a section devoted to fakes and forgeries. There is no published record of how or by whom this declaration was made.

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Epilogue T H I S TA L E O F T E X A S S TA M P S B E G A N B AC K I N 1861,

when the postal affairs of Texans passed into the control of the Confederate Post Office Department. That beleaguered department proved to be unable to supply its customers with those simple little stamps that made communicating with each other so much easier. Within a few weeks, John V. Law, the Gonzales postmaster/druggist, began using his advertising labels as stamps. Some other Texas postmasters soon followed suit in their own way, and then the postwar stamp hunters carried the tale forward and the great early philatelists kept adding new chapters. And, as August Dietz prophesied back in 1929, the tale has not ended. New discoveries are still making news, as we saw in 2008 when two more Victoria stamps were recognized and added to the roster of known Texas locals. Old collections are being dispersed as aging takes its toll on the ranks of philatelists; new collections are being formed as newer collectors discover the charm of these stamps and seek out the dispersed examples. Occasional dispersals are actually good for the hobby of philately. The eminent and wise American philatelist John R. Boker, Jr., made this claim when writing about the auction of the magnificent collection of Alfred Caspary in 1956. Caspary, Boker thought, paid significantly more for many items than they later sold for at his auction sales: This is not surprising because Caspary had for years so completely dominated those fields that collector interest had not developed since so few interesting items were on the market. Once these stamps were distributed, collector interest grew much stronger over the next two decades and prices have skyrocketed as the growth of interest in postal history has made many more philatelists aware of their significance.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection I have been a philatelist for well over fifty years, and a professional philatelist for well over thirty. It has been my pleasure to have discovered one of these locals and to have handled many more during my years as a stamp dealer. Each time, I felt a distinct pleasure as a real piece of Texas history passed through my hands. I do believe there are more of these stamps waiting patiently to be found, in family letters and records, and in business papers and correspondences. A collector friend in a certain South Texas town once told me he knew of several rarities in the papers of some of his town’s leading families; they were well aware of what they had, he said, but the descendants did not want the family papers to be broken up. I do hope to be around much longer, helping to build or to disperse many more collections of Texas postal history. It is a delight for me to share with others the enchantment I find in these tiny bits of paper from the Civil War years, and I smile as I see others understand and enjoy that fascination. I also think it likely that some of these stamps are already reposing in public hands, in family and business papers and correspondences that have been donated to our many libraries and museums. The sheer volume of such donations makes it likely that “finds” will occur as philatelic awareness is raised among both the caretakers and the researchers who sift through these piles of history. What a treat it would be for Texans if any such finds made among papers now in public hands could be gathered into a “state” collection that would travel from one Texas library or museum to another for display. Such exhibits could raise the public awareness of Texas postal history even higher.

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Appendix. A Census of the Known Texas Confederate Postmasters’ Provisional Stamps THI S CO M P I L AT I O N R E L I E S H EAVILY O N CROWN’S

Surveys of the Confederate Postmasters’ Provisionals; on the census figures quoted in the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries catalog descriptions (which may be accessed at www.siegelauctions.com, using the “Power Search” function); and the author’s extensive collection of clippings from various major stamp auctions since the Ferrary sales in the 1920s. Many of the items listed here are illustrated in this book’s photo gallery or in the individual chapters. AU S T I N

There are two varieties known, both of the cut-out variety, cut in a square shape, on either white or buff paper. Variety #1, 10-cent black on white paper. Two are known: 1. One, uncanceled, on brown cover to Clerk, County Court, Bexar Co., Texas (San Antonio), Austin postmark and “PAID.” 2. One connected (or “tied,” in philatelic terminology) to the cover by an overlapping postmark. The cover has a printed return address of J. T. Hallett, Land and General Collecting Agent, Austin City, Texas, to Doctor Clark, Hempstead, Austin Co., Texas.

Variety #2, on buff paper. Two are known: 1. One, uncanceled, on August 23, 1862, cover to Mr. E. S. Matthews, San Antonio, Texas, with Austin postmark. 2. One, tied by Austin postmark, date unclear, on cover to H. M. Alford, Capt. Fisher Co., Garland’s Reg’t, Little Rock, Ark. Docketing says received September 25, 1862. See photo gallery, plate 12. B E AU M O N T

Two different designs and three varieties of Beaumont stamps are known. The first design contains only the words “BEAUMONT,”

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection “PAID,” and “10 CENTS.” The second design adds the words “TEXAS,” and “POSTAGE,” and additional printer’s ornaments at top and bottom. Variety #1, Type I, 10-cent black on yellow paper, about 18 × 20 millimeters in width and height. Five are known, four on cover. 1. On April 9, 1864, cover to Mary J. Watson, San Augustine, Texas, pen cancel, turned and addressed to Sabine Pass. Ex-Hind, -Hall, and -Gross. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 16. 2. On June 11 (1864) cover, tied by rimless town postmark, to Mary J. Watson, San Augustine, turned and sent to C. S. Watson, C. S. Str. Sachem, Sabine Pass, Texas. Ex-Caspary, -Kilbourne. 3. Uncanceled, on turned cover to Mrs. Wm. B. Duncan, Liberty, Texas. Ex-Caspary, -Lilly. 4. Stamp not tied, ms. “X” cancel, on cover to Cypress City, Texas. 5. Off-cover single, faulty, the original discovery copy of Beaumont stamps, shown in 1894 article, in Ferrary auction as off-cover stamp, since added fraudulently to a cover addressed to James C. Knight, Palestine, Texas.

Variety #2, Type I, 10-cent black on pink paper (two shades of pink), approximately 2 millimeters taller than Type I, on yellow paper. Fourteen are known, thirteen on cover: 1. On cover to Mrs. S. L. Lloyd, Houston, Texas, June 18 ms. date. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 17. 2. On cover to Mrs. S. L. Lloyd, Houston, Texas, June 28 ms. date. 3. On cover to Mrs. S. L. Lloyd, Houston, Texas, June 30 ms. date. 4. On cover to Mrs. S. L. Lloyd, Houston, Texas, June 24 ms. date. 5. On cover to Mrs. S. L. Lloyd, Houston, Texas, unknown date. 6. On July 2 (1864) cover to Mrs. C. Sam’l Watson, Galveston, Texas, turned and addressed to Capt. of Sachem, Sabine Pass, Texas, Beaumont rimless postmark. 7. On July 5 (1864) cover to Mrs. C. Sam’l Watson, Galveston, Texas, c/o Mrs. C. M. Seymour, homemade adversity cover, Beaumont rimless postmark. 8. On June 11 (1864) cover to Mrs. Mary J. Watson, San Augustine, Texas, tied by Beaumont rimless postmark. Ex-Caspary. 9. Uncanceled, on cover to Mrs. C. Sam’l Watson, Galveston, Texas, c/o Mrs. C. M. Seymour.

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A Census of the Known Texas Confederate Postmasters' Provisional Stamps 10. On cover to Mrs. C. Sam’l Watson, Galveston, Texas, c/o Mrs. C. M. Seymour, with unclear dated Beaumont rimless postmark, and note to P.M.: “Just send this in a hurry will you” [“]And oblige Mr P.M. Yours . . .” 11. On July 4 (1864) cover to Miss E. J. Newman, Independence, Texas, Beaumont rimless and “Jul” postmark, date in ms. 12. Stamp with pen cancel, not tied, on cover to Mrs. Wm. B. Duncan, Liberty, Texas, Beaumont rimless and “Oct” postmark, date of 25 in ms. (1864). 13. Lower right corner sheet margin stamp on cover to Mrs. F. L. Ragsdale, Mountain City, Hays Co., Texas (now San Marcos), Beaumont rimless and “Jul” postmark with date of 16 in ms. (1864). 14. Off-cover used single, large margins, canceled by single pen stroke. Ex-Caspary.

Variety #3, Type II, 10-cent black on yellow paper, approximately 20 × 30 millimeters in width and height. Only one is known: 1. This is the famous “Large Beaumont” stamp. Uncanceled, on cover to Mrs. Wm. B. Duncan, Liberty, Texas. Ex-Walcott, -Caspary, -Lightner, -Lilly, -Camina, -Hill. It is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 1. G O L I AD

Two designs and eleven different varieties of the Goliad stamps are known. The first design, or Type I, had only the word “Goliad,” the denomination “5” or “10,” and “POSTAGE.” The second design, or Type II, also contained the words “J. A. Clarke,” and “Post Master.” All used Type I stamps were signed by Postmaster Clarke when they were mailed, usually in black or red, and occasionally in magenta. Type II stamps had his name printed on the stamp and thus were not signed by him. For an example of the Type I stamp, see plate 5; for an example of the Type II stamp, see plate 2. Variety #1, Type I, 5-cent black on white. Two used, off-cover singles are known: 1. Has black “PAID” cancel, red signature, crease and repaired. Ex-Kirkman.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection 2. Has faded black signature of PM, also signed dealer Warren H. Colson (W.H.C.). Ex-Hessel. 3. An additional copy on a cover is known in the Tapling Collection in the British Museum.

Variety #2, Type I, 5-cent black on gray. Two used off-cover singles are known: 1. Has black signature, blue and red wash, crease and thins. ExFerrary, -Hind, -Caspary, and -Kirkman. 2. Has several deep thins and paper breaks, smudgy cancel.

Variety #3, Type I, 5-cent black on rose. Two are known, one on cover, one used off-cover single: 1. Off-cover stamp has black signature, black “PAID” cancel, faults. Ex-Caspary, -Kirkman. 2. Stamp on cover has magenta signature, along with a black “PAID” cancel, and a rimless Goliad postmark, on front of a cover (back is missing) to Clement R. Johns, Comptroller, Austin City, Texas. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 5.

Variety #4, Type I, 10-cent black on white. One off-cover single is known: 1. Has magenta signature, faults. Ex-Caspary, -Lilly.

Variety #5, Type I, 10-cent black on rose. Three copies are known, one on cover, two off-cover used stamps: 1. The on-cover copy is signed by the PM, probably in black, not connected to the cover by the signature, no town postmark, on a multicolor patriotic cover to Col D. Hardeman, Santa Gertrudas, Kings Ranch, Texas. Some experts question whether the stamp originated on this cover. Ex-Ferrary, -Hind, -Caspary, -Lilly. 2. Stamp has red signature, is restored at right, and “Repaired” stamped on back. 3. Stamp has magenta signature, faint cancel, appears unused, thin, 1990 Confederate Stamp Alliance certificate of authenticity.

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A Census of the Known Texas Confederate Postmasters' Provisional Stamps

FIGURE A .1. The patriotic cover addressed to the Kings Ranch with the 10-cent Goliad first design stamp on rose paper. Reprinted by permission of the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc.

Variety #6, Type II, 5-cent black on gray. One pair, with one stamp being the misspelled variety, and two singles are known, all off-cover: 1. The pair is horizontal, with the left stamp the misspelled type, a very light circular postmark, a faint crease between the stamps, one of the most famous Texas Confederate items in existence. ExFerrary, -Caspary, -Lilly. It is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 2. 2. Has single stroke of a pen to cancel, close margins but free of faults. 3. Has single stroke of a pen to cancel, repaired bottom left corner.

Variety #7, same as variety #6, with “GOILAD” misspelling. One is known, as part of the pair described above. Variety #8, Type II, 10-cent black on gray. Seven copies are known in private hands, four on cover, three off-cover (one is in the British Museum’s Tapling Collection): 1. On cover to Capt. William Headen, Corpus Christi, Texas, from conscription officer about a conscript who is to report to Headen, has ms “O.B.” (Official Business), letter dated August 16, 1864.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection 2. Another similar cover to Headen in Corpus Christi, stamp has tiny pinhole, letter dated August 19, 1864. Ex-Caspary. 3. On cover to Stonewall, Texas, with letter dated October 22, 1863, “PAID” black cancel. 4. On cover to Mrs. James A. Moody, Victoria, Texas, wife of Postmaster Moody there. Ex-Camina. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 15. 5. Off-cover, light circular town postmark, thins. Ex-Caspary. 6. Off-cover, faint “PAID” cancel, several deep thins, one of which left a hole. 7. Off-cover, partial “PAID” cancel. Ex-Hind.

Variety #9, same as Variety 8, “GOILAD” misspelling. Three are known, two on cover, one off-cover used single: 1. On cover to Capt. Headen in Corpus Christi, as described above, letter dated August 18, 1864. 2. On cover to a Lt. Col. in Tyler, Smith Co., Texas, tied by “PAID” cancel in black. Ex-Ferrary, -Hind, and -Camina. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 9. 3. Used, off-cover. Ex-Steves, from photo in Philatelic Foundation files.

Variety #10, Type II, 5-cent black on dark blue. Only one copy is known, on cover: 1. One stamp on a cover from which another stamp was removed long ago, sent to Columbia, Texas, but mis-sent to Columbus, then forwarded with Columbus postmark on cover, too. Stamp has been repaired and restored at top right corner, with some of the blue color painted in, stamp and cover faulty. Ex-Ferrary, -Hind, -Gross.

Variety #11, Type II, 10-cent black on dark blue. Two copies are known, one on small piece, one off-cover: 1. On piece, canceled and connected to the piece by two pen strokes, with “Goliad. Feb 15” postmark alongside. Ex-Steves, mentioned in Crown’s Surveys. This stamp is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 6.

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A Census of the Known Texas Confederate Postmasters' Provisional Stamps 2. Off-cover, has large ms. “X” covering entire stamp, tiny faults. Ex-Lilly. G O N Z AL E S

Three varieties are known, each distinguished by its color. These were advertising labels used as stamps and have no printed postage rate. Some had a Gonzales postmark applied before being affixed to a letter; others had only a pen cancel on the stamp. Variety #1 (5-cent), gold on dark blue or black. Three pairs and one single exist on cover, another single exists on a small piece of a cover, and four more singles are known on another cover, though they probably did not originate on that cover: 1.–3. Three covers sent to James F. Miller, of the Eighth Texas Cavalry, at Corinth, Mississippi. Each bears a pair of the gold on dark blue labels paying the 10-cent rate. Each pair was canceled by a Gonzales postmark before being affixed to the letter, probably to allow the postmaster to differentiate between labels sold as postage stamps and labels applied to books or pillboxes. 4. (5-cent) gold on black single, not canceled, with “Paid 5c” ms. notation, on December 2, 1861, cover to W. Y. Glass, Esq., Victoria, Texas. Ex-Caspary, -Lilly. 5. (5-cent) gold on black single, on a small piece of a cover with October 1861 postmark.

Another cover exists with four singles, uncanceled, on a large “court house” cover, with a Gonzales, April 8, 1861, postmark. These are thought to have been added fraudulently to this cover, as it predates the June 1 takeover of postal affairs in Texas by the Confederate Post Office Department. It was offered in a Christie’s auction in 1999 described as an interesting reference piece. With a low estimate of $400, it sold to Confederate specialist dealer Jack Molesworth of Boston for $2,750. These are not included as genuine in the census. Variety #2, (10-cent) gold on garnet. Three are known on covers, and one off-cover (stamps described as crimson in color may be a shade of this paper usually described as garnet): 1. On a November 1, 1864, folded letter to T. W. House, Houston, Texas, pen canceled, with a filing crease through both the stamp

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection and the letter. Has typewritten notarized affidavit signed by House on back. 2. On July 14, 1864, letter to Elder J. H. Thurmond, San Antonio, Texas, tied by pen cancel, with black “PAID” marking. 3. On July 3, 1864, letter to Eustace St. P. Bellinger, Co. B, 8th Texas Inft, Hobby’s Reg’t, Galveston, Texas, tied by pen cancel. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 10. 4. Off-cover stamp, pen canceled, damaged. Ex-Ferrary.

Variety #3, (10-cent) gold on black. Three are known on cover, with one of doubtful authenticity: 1. On cover to Mr. A. I. Clark, Galveston, Texas, with Galveston Apr. 1 (1865?) postmark and black “PAID,” tied by pen cancel. 2. On cover to T. M. Harwood (Hartwood?), Richmond, VA, tied by pen “X,” date uncertain. 3. A single affixed over a 3-cent U.S. stamped envelope with printed return address of Charles Mason, Lawyer and Land Agent, Gonzales, Texas, addressed to Capt. Barton Peck, Goliad, Texas. There is no postmark on this cover, and some question whether it is genuine. Thus it is not included as genuine in this census.

Possibly a fourth 10-cent cover exists. The Crown Surveys mentions a cover that surfaced in 1913 addressed to “Utah, Alabama” (probably a misspelling of “Eutaw”), but no other record can be found of this cover. H AL L E T T S VI L L E

One stamp is known, a cut-out stamp in a square shape: Variety #1, 10-cent black on grayish-blue ruled letter paper. Only one example is known, on letter to Austin, with additional Hallettsville Aug. 21 (1863) postmark, repaired bottom left corner of cover, which affects postmark. Ex-Caspary. See photo gallery, plate 3. H E L E NA

There are two varieties, a 5-cent and a 10-cent, and a total of five stamps are known, all off-cover:

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A Census of the Known Texas Confederate Postmasters' Provisional Stamps Variety #1, 5-cent black on buff paper. Three are known: 1. Probably unused, unusual spots at left. Ex-Caspary. 2. Used, partial Helena postmark on right corner. Ex-Camina. See photo gallery, plate 8. 3. Used, indistinct cancel, somewhat smudged. Ex-Ferrary and -Caspary.

Variety #2, 10-cent black on bluish-gray paper. Two are known: 1. Used, thins and closed tear, signed in blue (by postmaster?). ExCaspary. See photo gallery, plate 8. 2. Used, thins and repaired. Ex-Ferrary and -Caspary. I N DE P E N D E N C E

Two varieties of Independence stamps are known. All are cut to a circular shape, and usually have an accompanying postmark with the town misspelled “INDEPENDANCE.” A total of five examples are known. Variety #1, 10-cent black on buff paper, with large “10” for rate. One is known, on July 31, 1862, letter to T. W. House, Houston, Texas. Ex-Ferrary, -Hind, -Moody. Variety #2, 10-cent black on buff paper, with small “10” and manuscript “Pd” for rate. Four are known: 1. On cover to Capt. T. L. Scott, Terry’s Regiment, Shreveport, LA, probably 1864. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 11. 2. Another on cover to Capt. T. L. Scott, Shreveport, LA, Terry’s Reg’t., undated. 3. On cover to Capt. T. L. Scott, Sandy Point, Brazoria Co., Texas. 4. On cover to Capt. T. L. Scott, Terry’s Regiment, Houston, Texas. P LU M C RE E K

One variety is known: Variety #1, 10-cent on bluish paper, with “10” and ruled lines added by hand. Two examples are known:

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection 1. A small, diamond-shaped paper cut-out tied by manuscript “Paid 10 cts.” Also has “Plum Creek, July 16/64” manuscript postmark, to Mrs. Cordelia Harwood, Gonzales, Texas, on homemade wallpaper cover. Ex-Caspary. 2. A small, square paper cut-out, appears not tied, with manuscript “Paid 10c” and “Plum Creek July 9” manuscript postmark, on cover to Mr. George Meriwether, Woods Regmt, Company I, Corpus Christi, Texas. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 7. P O RT L AVAC A

One variety is known: Variety #1, 10-cent black on white paper with blue ruled lines on back, uncanceled, on cover to Miss Puss Cliett, Prairie Lea, Texas. Only one copy is known. This cover is illustrated in the photo gallery, plate 4. VI C TO RI A

Three varieties are known: Variety #1, Type I, 5-cent red brown on green paper, large thin numeral “5.” Five copies are known, all unused. An example of this variety is shown in the photo gallery, plate 13. 1. With original gum, large margins at top and right, clear at left and bottom, no faults. Ex-Ferrary, -Hind. 2. Some original gum, large margins top and right, frame touched at left and bottom, vertical crease. Ex-Caspary, -Lilly, -Kilbourne. 3. With original gum, large margins top and left, clipped lower right corner, small faults. Ex-Hessel. 4. Large margins, uncanceled. Ex-Steves, with photo in Philatelic Foundation files. 5. Recently discovered (2008) copy, large margins bottom and right, small faults.

Variety #2, Type I, 10-cent red brown on green paper, large thin numeral “10.” Five copies are known, two on cover, three off-cover unused. An example of this stamp is shown in the photo gallery, plate 13.

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A Census of the Known Texas Confederate Postmasters' Provisional Stamps 1. On cover to Mr. J. San Roman, Brownsville, Texas, tied by Victoria, Mar. 30 (1863) postmark. Ex-Kilbourne, -Gross. See photo gallery, plate 14. 2. On cover to C. Hellenkamp, La Grange, tied by Victoria Jun 23 (1863) postmark. Ex-Steves, -Caspary. 3. Unused, large margins right and bottom, faulty. Ex-Hessel. 4. Unused, from recent 2008 discovery, severe horizontal crease. 5. Probably unused. Ex-Steves, from photo in Philatelic Foundation files, missing about ¼ of stamp at right bottom.

Variety #3, Type II, 10-cent red brown on green pelure paper, small bold back-slanting numeral. Four copies are known: 1. Used, town postmark at bottom right. Ex-Camina. 2. Used, town postmark at left, repaired. Ex-Caspary. 3. Unused, margins clear to just in frameline, small, thin. ExFerrary, -Hind, -Moody, -Caspary, -Kilbourne. 4. Unused, large margins, sound, from Robert A. Siegel’s 1968 “Rarities of the World” sale.

Recap of the currently known varieties and recorded examples of Texas postmasters’ stamps: Examples Town Variety Now Known Austin #1 2 Austin #2 2 Beaumont #1 5 Beaumont #2 14 Beaumont #3 1 Goliad #1 2 Goliad #2 2 Goliad #3 2 Goliad #4 1 Goliad #5 3 Goliad #6 3 Goliad #7 1 Goliad #8 7 Goliad #9 3 Goliad #10 1

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Goliad Gonzales Gonzales Gonzales Hallettsville Helena Helena Independence Independence Plum Creek Port Lavaca Victoria Victoria Victoria

#11 #1 #2 #3 #1 #1 #2 #1 #2 #1 #1 #1 #2 #3

2 8 4 2 1 3 2 1 4 2 1 5 5 4

29

93

Twenty-nine different varieties of stamps are now known. Ninetythree examples of all these varieties are now recorded.

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Notes on Sources THIS BOOK IS A BLEND OF THREE DIFFERENT historical stories: (1) Confederate postal history, (2) Texas history and postal history, and (3) the history of stamp collecting. With that in mind, we will begin here with a list of useful sources for each. CO N F E DE RAT E P O S TAL HI S TORY

Confederate States of America, Philatelic Subject Index and Bibliography, 1862–1999, by Richard H. Byne. This is a truly invaluable source for articles, books, periodicals, and auction catalogs containing information about Confederate postal history. Many articles are listed from obscure, long-defunct publications about Texas Confederate subjects. Volume 1 covers 1862-1984; Volume 2 covers 1862–1999. The Postal Service of the Confederate States, by August Dietz. This monumental work, published in 1929, is still one of the best sources of information on the beginnings of the Confederate post office, as well as the beginnings of Confederate philately. The New Dietz Confederate States Catalog and Hand-Book, by August Dietz. Last published in 1986, with a second printing in 1997, this is a catalog of known stamps, postal markings, official envelopes, etc., of the Confederacy. Surveys of the Confederate Postmasters’ Provisionals, edited by Francis Crown, Jr. Published in 1980 by Quarterman Publications, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers, 2011, by Scott Publishing Company, Sidney, Ohio. This catalog, updated yearly, has an excellent section listing all Confederate postmasters’ provisionals. T E X AS P O STAL H I STORY

Texas Postal History Handbook, by Charles Deaton, published in 1980. An Encyclopedia of Texas Post Offices: Texas Post Offices Under Six Flags, by Walter G. Schmidt. Published by the Collectors Club of Chicago, 1993.

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Texas Post Offices by County, by John J. Germann and Myron Janzen. Published in 1986. These three works all have lists of the post offices in Texas, showing the dates of operation and county in which they operated. An excellent online source for this information is Post Offices and Postmasters of Texas, 1846–1930, by Jim Wheat. The easiest way to access it is simply to search for the entire title in an online search engine. The Handbook of Texas Online, by the Texas State Historical Association. This excellent and free online source for all things in Texas history should be familiar to everyone who is interested in Texas subjects. T H E H I STO RY O F S TAM P C OLLEC TI N G

The World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors, and More of the World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors, by Stanley Bierman, M.D. Both published in 1990 by Linn’s Stamp News. This is an excellent source for both the beginnings of philately and for biographical information of the early great collectors. “The Intertwining of Philatelic and Social History,” by Calvet Hahn (2000). Available only online, this multi-part essay may be found at www.nystamp.org. “Warren H. Colson of Boston—His Stamps,” by John R. Boker, Jr., in Fifty-third American Philatelic Congress: The Congress Book 1987. This article about Colson, one of the most important early American stamp dealers, has much of interest about the early days of American philately and the great collectors. In addition, the following sources are also of value: Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Inc., of New York. Scott Trepel, the president of this major stamp auction house, has made the Web site into a repository of information on stamps and postal history. It can be accessed at www.siegelauctions.com. The Power Search feature allows for searches of past auctions to be conducted by stamp catalog numbers, which brings forth descriptions with much helpful information about these items. Vicki Betts, a professional librarian at the University of Texas at Tyler, has some helpful Web guides on the Civil War. The News-

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Notes on Sources papers tab, especially, has much information on the paper shortages during the Civil War. The easiest way to access these is to simply use an online search engine for either “uttyler/vbetts” or “Vicki Betts.” Many of these books, even the out-of-print ones, may be purchased through stamp or philatelic literature dealers. Many of the articles mentioned in this book are from philatelic journals that no longer exist. Copies of such articles may often be obtained through the American Philatelic Research Library, in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. It is a part of the American Philatelic Society and may be contacted at www.stamps.org.

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Index Italic page numbers indicate material in figures. Bold page numbers indicate color plates following page 14.

1998 Hill collection to Andrew Levitt, 89 1999 Gonzales stamp by Christie’s, 103 1999 Kilbourne collection by Robert A. Siegel Galleries, 22, 42, 58, 63, Pls. 11, 13A & B 2006 West Haven Collection by Cherrystone Auctions, Pl. 6 2009 Gross collection by Spink Shreves, xi, 43, Pls. 5, 16, 17 2010 Schuyler Rumsey auction, Pl. 10 Austin stamps, Pl. 12; Caspary collection, 39; described, 80–81, 97; first reporting of, xvi, 13, 80; Postmaster William Rust, 6–7, 79 Austin Statesman, 75–76

adhesive-backed/gummed/“cut and paste” stamps, xiii, 2–3, 10, 71 “adversity” use, xiii–xiv, 63 Alford (H. M.) correspondence, 80–81, 97 American Journal of Philately, 11, 12 American Philatelic Association, 19 Askew, Henry G., 75–76 auctions/sales: 1911/1912 Steves Goliads to New England Stamp Co., 65 1921–1925, 1929 Ferrary collection by French government, 22–23, 32–35, 52–53, 55, 77, 88, 98, Pl. 2 1933 Hind collection by Charles J. Phillips, 35–36, 77 1950 Moody collection by H. R. Harmer, 44–45 1956 Caspary collection by H. R. Harmer, 13, 37–40, 67, 68–69, 73, 79, 95 1962 Kirkman collection by H. R. Harmer, 41, 73, 79 1962 Lightner collection to Weills (private), 45–46 1967–1968 Lilly collection by Robert A. Siegel, 41, Pl. 2 1985 “Rarities of the World” by Robert A. Siegel, 73–74, Pl. 7 1986 Beverly Hills collection by John W. Kaufmann, 74 1988 Weill Goliad by author (private), 46 1989 Weill collection, 46 1994 Camina collection by Robert A. Siegel, 46–47, Pls. 1, 8, 9, 15

Barclay, Lillian Elizabeth, 23–24 Battle of the Nueces, 14 Beaumont stamps, Pls. 1, 16, 17; Camina collection, 46; Caspary collection, 38–39; described, 50–52, 54–55, 97–99; from Duncan correspondence, 25, 53–54, 98, 99; Ferrary collection, 33–34; fictitious and discredited, 26–27, 50, 51–52; first reporting of, xvi, 13, 50; Gross collection, 43; Hill collection, 47, 55, 87; Hind collection, 36; Kilbourne collection, 42; Kirkman collection, 41; Large Beaumont cover, 25–27, 41, 45–46, 47, 54–55, 99; Lightner/ Weill collection, 45–46; Lilly collection, 41; from Lloyd (W. H. to S. L.) correspondence, 53, 98; Mekeel collection, 51–53, 51; Moody collection, 44; from Newman (W. M. to Miss E. J.) correspondence, 53, 99; Postmaster Alexander Hinkle, 6, 49–50,

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection 55–56; from Ragsdale (Private) correspondence, 56, 99; size differences, 52; stamp added to envelope, 55; from Watson (Claudius Samuel) correspondence, 34, 53, 98–99 Bexar County Court correspondence, 80 Bierman, Stanley, 10, 30, 88–89 Boker, John R. Jr., 89, 95 Brazil, 10 Bridges, Anne C. Huff, 72–73 British Guiana stamp, 35 Brownsville, Texas, 45 Brühl, Carlrichard, 32 Byne, Richard, 25

Cox, A. F., 62–63, 67 Crosby (Stephen) correspondence, 78 Crown, Francis J. Jr., 77, 97 “cut and paste”/gummed/adhesivebacked stamps, xiii, 2–3, 10, 71 Daily, “Charles W.,” 66 Daily, David, 6, 66 Daily, S. G., 61 Daily Examiner (Richmond, Va.), 1–2 Deats, Hiram A., 64, 68 Dietz, August H., 9; on Alfred H. Caspary, 37–38; Confederate States Catalog and Handbook, 79; on Flick’s Austin stamps, 80–81; on Fred Green, 24, 63; on Gonzales stamps, 83; on Lavaca stamp, 68; obituary of Albert Steves, Sr., 19–20; Postal Service of the Confederate States of America, xvi, 9, 13, 24, 62–63, 79, 93; on San Antonio stamp, 92; Stamp and Cover Collecting, 59, 68; on tracing Confederate stamps, 60, 63–64 Dorchester, Ernest Dean, 20–24 Do You Remember? Early Days in Luling, Texas (Bridges), 72–73 Duncan (William B.) correspondence, 25, 46, 53–55, Pl.1

Caldwell, Mary House, 21 Camina collection, 46–47 Cartwright, Gary, 44 Caspary, Alfred H.: 1956 auction, 13, 37–40, 67, 68–69, 73, 79, 95; biography, 36–37; Boker on, 95; collection, 39–40; Dietz on, 37–38 Castillejo, José Luis, 46 Caudill, Philip, 54 citizenship and Confederate postmasters, 61–62 Clarke, John A., 5, 60–65 “Clarke’s Texian Liniment,” 60–61 Cliett (Puss) correspondence, 68, 69 Coleman, R. H., 56 collect, sending, 2 Collectors Club Philatelist, 54–55 Colman and Law, 5–6, 61, 83–84 Colson, Warren H., 89 Comfort, Texas, 13–15 Confederate government conscription, 14 Confederate Philatelist, 25, 55 Confederate Post Office Department, xv, 1, 3–5, 11, 95 Confederate Stamp Alliance, 9, 25, 55, 58 Confederate States Catalog and Handbook (Dietz), 79 counterfeit. See frauds, forgeries, and reprints covers, xiii–xiv

envelopes, xiii–xiv, 2 Everett, Morris, 55 fake stamps. See frauds, forgeries, and reprints “Father of Confederate Philately.” See Dietz, August H. Felton, Rex H. “Rick,” 58 Ferrary, Phillip La Renotiere von: biography, 30–32, 31; and possible forgeries, 88–89; purchase of Beaumonts from Mekeel, 52, 55; purchase of Independence cut-out adhesive, 22, 75; seizures and auction by France, 22–23, 32–35, 52–53, 55, 77, 88, 98, Pl. 2; Texas locals platoon, 32–35 Ferrary-Auktionem, Die (Brühl), 32 Flick, T. E., 80–81

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Index Franklin, Benjamin, 2 frauds, forgeries, and reprints: controversy over Hallettsville local, 79; Galveston adhesive, 92–93; genuine Beaumont on fraudulent envelope, 55; James A. Petrie, 88–89; reported Goliad reprints, 26, 65–66; San Antonio “cut and paste,” 91–92; Victoria souvenir reprints, 58–59; Victoria stamps initially labeled, xii, 57–58, 95; Waxahachie and Wharton controversy, 34, 47, 87–91 fronts, 33

Lilly collection, 41; Moody collection, 44; Postmaster John V. Law, xv, 5–6, 22, 83–84, 95 Green, Fred: Austin stamps, 80; Beaumont discovery, 25, 53–54; fictitious stamps claimed, 26–27; newspaper articles, 24–26; Plum Creek discovery, 74; San Antonio stamp, 93; visit to Goliad, 63 Greenville, Alabama, stamp, 88–89 Gross, William H., 42–43 Guenther, Mrs. Arthur W., 17, 57 gummed/adhesive-backed/“cut and paste” stamps, xiii, 2–3, 10, 71

Galveston: A History of the Island (Cartwright), 44 Galveston stamps, xv, 20–21, 43–44, 92–93 Gammel (Mr.), 80 German Hill Country Unionists, 14, 15 Gibbons, Stanley, 10 glossary of terms, xiii–xiv Goliad Messenger, 62–63 Goliad stamps, 101, Pls. 2, 5, 6, 9, 15; Camina collection, 46; Caspary collection, 39; described, 5, 19, 41, 62– 63, 99–103; Ferrary collection, 33; fictitious, 26, 65–66; first reporting of, xvi, 12; Fred Green and, 24–26, 63; GOILAD error, xvi, 5, 12, 19, 33, 36, 39, 41, 46, 62, 65; Gross collection, 43; Hill collection, 47, 87; Hind collection, 36; Kilbourne collection, 42; Kirkman collection, 41; Lilly collection, 41; Postmaster John A. Clarke, 5, 60–65; recent discoveries, 65; Rev. A. F. Cox (printer), 62–63, 67; Steves collection, 19, 65; Types I and II, 62–63 Gonzales stamps, Pl. 10; Caspary collection, 39; Colman and Law firm, 61, 83–84; described, 84–85, 103– 104; Ferrary collection, 34, 84–85; first reporting of stamps, xvi, 13; Fred Green and, 24–26; from House correspondence, 22; Kilbourne collection, 42; Kirkman collection, 41;

Hallett, Margaret L., 78 Hallett (J. T.) correspondence, 97 Hallettsville, Texas: Hallettsville history, 78; Postmaster Thomas Notgrass, 6–7, 78 Hallettsville stamp, Pl. 3; Caspary collection, 39, 79; description and authentication of, 39, 78–79, 104; first reporting of, xvi, 13, 79; Hill collection, 47, 87; Kirkman collection, 41, 79 Handbook of Texas Online, 90 Harris, Henry Ellis, 57–58 Harwood (Cordelia) correspondence, 73 H. E. Harris & Company, 57–58 Helena stamps, Pl. 8; Camina collection, 46; Caspary collection, 39–40, 67; described, 104–105; Ferrary collection, 34, 67; first reporting of, 66; Gonzales collection, 41; history of, 11, 17, 66–67; Lilly collection, 41; Postmaster David W. Daily, 6, 66; printed by Cox in Goliad, 63, 67 Hempstead, Texas, correspondence, 80 Hill, John R. Jr., 46–47, 55, 87–90 Hind, Arthur, 23, 35–36, 93 Hinkle, Alexander, 6, 49–50, 55–56 House (Thomas William) correspondence, 20–23, 34, 75 Hoyer and Ludwig, 3 H. R. Harmer auction firm, 13, 37, 41, 44, 67, 73

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection importance of postage stamps, 1–2 Independence stamps, Pl. 11; Askew article about, 75–77; Caspary collection, 40; cut-and-paste stamps, 22–23; described, 22, 34, 77–78, 105; Ferrary collection, 23, 34, 75; first reporting of, xvi, 13; HouseDorchester stamp, 22, 75, 77–78; Kilbourne collection, 42; Moody collection, 44; Postmaster John McKnight, 6–7, 74–77; “Southern Confederacy” words claim, 76–77 “Inverted Jenny,” 19 Ivory Stamp Club of the Air, 57–58

Matthews (E. S.) correspondence, 81, 97 McKnight, John, 6–7, 74–77 McNall, Bruce P., 74 Mekeel, Charles H. (Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News/Mekeel’s Stamp Collector), 50–53, 55, 57, 83–84 Miller (J. F.) correspondence, 34, 83–84 Molesworth, Jack, 103 Moody, James A., 6, 19, 40, 46, 56–57, 65 Moody, William L. III, 43–44 Moody (Susan) correspondence, 46, 65 Moss Bluff Rebel (Caudill), 54 New England Stamp Company, 19, 30, 65 Newman (W. M. to Miss E. J.) correspondence, 53, 99 New York City locals, 10 Northers, Texas, 50 Notgrass, Thomas, 6–7, 78 Nueces, Battle of the, 14

Johns (Clement R.) correspondence, 90 Johnston, William R., 6–7, 72–73 Kane, Carl, 58 Karnes County, 66 Kaufmann, Patricia, 58 Kent, David, 65 Kilbourne, Charles E. II, 42, 58, 63 Kirkman, Alexander S., 40–41, 73 Kloepper, Johanna, 13

Ogsbury, Charles A., 7, 69 paid marks, xiii, 4 paper shortage, 5, 62–63 Peirce, R. W., 62 Pemberton, Edward L., 12, 66 perforation, 2–3 Petrie, James A., 88–89 Philatelic Foundation: certification of Hallettsville local, 79; certification of Plum Creek local, 73–74; certification of San Antonio “cut and paste,” 91–92; certification of Wharton and Waxahachie locals, 87–89; reference collection, 63 Philatelic Journal of America, 17, 57, 64–65 Phillips, Charles J., 16–17, 25, 65, 66, 79 Piller, Stanley, 47, 89–90 Plum Creek stamps, Pl. 7; Beverly Hills collection, 74; Caspary collection, 13, 40; described, 6–7, 73–74, 105–106; first reporting of, xvi, 13; Green collection, 25; Kirkman col-

LaFontaine, Glen, 58 Large Beaumont cover. See under Beaumont stamps Lavaca (Port Lavaca) stamps, Pl. 4; Caspary collection, 40; described, 7, 68, 106; first reporting of, 13; Lightner collection, 45–46; name change from Port Lavaca, 7; Postmaster Charles A. Ogsbury, 7, 69 Law, John V., 5–6, 83–84, 95 Leage, Ida, 65 Levitt, Andrew, 47 Lightner, Camille Sams, 45–46 Lilly, Josiah K. Jr., 40–42 Lloyd (William H.) correspondence, 34, 53 London stamp journals, xvi, 12 Long, Steven, 44 Luling, Texas, 72 Mahe, Pierre, 31

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Index lection, 41; officially recognized, xvi, 12, 13; Postmaster William R. Johnston, 6–7, 72–73 Port Lavaca. See Lavaca (Port Lavaca) stamps postage rates, xv, 2–3 Postal Service of the Confederate States of America (Dietz), xvi, 9, 13, 24, 62–63, 79, 93 post office, xv, 1, 2, 3–5, 10, 11, 95 prepaid requirement for letters, 2

shortages of stamps, 1–3 Siegel, Robert A. See Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries signpost of civilization, stamps as, 10 Smithsonian National Postal Museum, 43 Southern Philatelist, 92 Spink Shreves Galleries, 43 Stamp and Cover Collecting (Dietz), 19–20, 59, 64, 68, 83 Stamp and Cover Collectors’ Review (Dietz), 80 Stamp Collector’s Handbook (Pemberton), 12, 66 Stamp Collector’s Magazine (London, England), 12, 63 Stamp News (London, England), 19 Stamps magazine, 77 Steck Company, 23 Steves, Albert Sr., 13–20, 18, 30, 40, 57, 64–67 Stonewall, Texas, correspondence, 47 Surveys of the Confederate Postmasters’ Provisionals (Crown), 77, 97 Switzerland, 10

radio show, 58 Ragsdale (Private) correspondence, 56, 99 Ransom, Susan Lamone, 53 Rareshide, A. M., 51 Reagan, John H., 1, 3–5 reprints. See frauds, forgeries, and reprints Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries: Camina collection auction (1994), 46–47, Pls. 1, 8, 9, 15; Kilbourne collection auction (1999), 22, 42, 58, 63, Pls. 11, 13A & B; Lilly collection auction (1967-68), 41, Pl. 2; notes regarding Independence stamps, 77; “Rarities of the World” sale (1985), 73–74, Pl. 7; website “Power Search” function, 97 Rummel, Walter A., 65 Rust, R. S., 79 Rust, William, 6–7, 79

table of known varieties and recorded examples, 107–108 tape, use of by Arthur Hind, 36 Terry’s Regiment correspondence, 40 Texas: early philately in, 12–13, 20; philately circa 1910, 29–30; postal service prior to 1861, 2; use of local stamps, 4–5; weather, 50. See also individual town names Texas Philatelic Association, 20, 25, 76 Texas Philatelist, 80 They Dreamed and Dared (Barclay), 23–24 timeline of important dates, xv–xvi Time magazine, 22 Trepel, Scott, 42, 63, 67 Treue der Union (True to the Union) monument, 14, 15 “turned” covers, xiv T. W. House Bank, 21

San Antonio Express, 26 San Antonio stamps: described, 91–92; Fred Green (1929) article, 24–26; Hill collection, 47, 87; Mrs. Arthur W. Guenther’s stamp, 17–18, 57 Schumacher, August H., 77 Scott, John W., xv, 10–12, 17–18; Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps & Covers, xvi, 12, 58, 79; Scott Stamp Monthly, 89–90 Scott (T. L.) correspondence, 77 scrip, post office, 4 sealing wax, 2

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The Great Texas Stamp Collection Unionists, German Hill Country, 14, 15 United States Philatelic Classics Society, 87 United States Post Office, 2, 10 unlisted provisionals, 13 “Unlisted Provisionals” (Piller), 89–90

printing of, 56; Steves collection, 17, 19, 40, 57 Walcott, George, 54–55 wallpaper covers, xiv Washington, George, 2 Watson (Claudius Samuel) correspondence, 34, 47, 53 Waxahachie, Texas, stamp, 34, 47, 87–91, Pl. 18 Weekly Philatelic Gossip, 65–66 Weill, Raymond, 41, 46 Welder, Julia Duncan, 53–54 Wharton, Texas, stamp, 34, 47, 87–91, Pl. 19 Williams, L. N., 79 Wilson, Woodrow, 22–23 Woods Regiment correspondence, 74 “World of Unique Stamps” (Williams), 79 World’s Greatest Stamp Collectors (Bierman), 10, 30, 88

Velasco, Texas, 20–21 Victoria Advocate, 56, 58 Victoria stamps, Pls. 13A & B, 14; 1947 souvenir “reprint,” 58, 59; 2008 discoveries, 95; Camina collection, 46; Caspary collection, 40; described, 106–107; “fakes” declared genuine, xvi, 57–58, 95; Ferrary collection, 34; first reporting of, xvi, 12, 57; Gross collection, 43; Hind collection, 36; Kane/LaFontaine collections, 58; Kilbourne collection, 42; known stamps, 6; Moody collection, 44, 57; Postmaster James A. Moody, 6, 19, 40, 46, 56–57, 65, 102; Postmaster R. H. Coleman, 56;

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